Snow storm
by Figmant of your Imagination
Summary: Natsu had been ripped from the world by mysterious circumstances and Lisanna; the daughter of the Snow dragon will do anything in her power to get him back. In Edolas, Natsu discovers a plot to bring this strange country back from the brink, but at a terrible price, he will do anything in his power to stop it, but the only thing he really wants is to return to his home.A NaLi story
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 **I do not own Fairy Tail; no in fact Hiro Mashima has that privilege. This is a thing that I'm starting with, I'm probably going to make it a mash up of all my favourite NaLi stories so I figured I'd put some more disclaimer in for those authors whose ideas I'm "borrowing": lisanna the snow dragon slayer was an idea invented by xXxMusicNCookiesxXx for their story; lisanna of the snow (go read it).**

* * *

She was alone, she didn't know what to do, she'd never been alone before, it was snowing down a blizzard, but then again it was always snowing where she lived, her mother had told her of the sun but she had never seen it, the sun never shone on her mothers mountain it would only snow, hail or rain. She desperately tried calling out again

"MOTHER!...MOTHER!... mother…", The little girl of at best seven with shoulder length Snow White hair and baby blue eyes broke down inside the cave she had lived in for most her life and cried. She just couldn't understand why her mother had left like that; she somehow hadn't even left a scent trail. And so after crying for the good part of an hour the little girl went to sleep to end the night of the worst day of her life: July 7th, X777, the day the snow dragon Neiberosa disappeared, the day lisanna's mother left.

* * *

She was wandering aimlessly; she was hungry, tired and not sure what to do or who to turn to. After hours of wandering she came across a small village and as she entered she noticed that all the buildings were small wooden huts except for a church at the end of the Main Street which donned a tall spire.

Suddenly a tall tanned man with messy black hair and wielding a pitchfork lunged out of a door to the small girls left

"Yerr wif thet devil girl ain't ya?", the man spat angrily

"w-what?", was lisanna's obvious reply as she was very confused and finding it difficult to understand the mans strange way of speaking

"Don't lie to me brat!. Ye look just like thet devil sister of yerrs", then the man quickly grabbed lisanna by the back of her collar and lifted her up and began walking back towards the outskirts of the town

"We don't want no devil children in our town. Yerr lucky enough thet Mr Mayor let ya stey in thet abandoned 'ouse", lisanna struggled in the mans grip

"Get off me!", She yelled, in her desperation she flung a volley of snow into the mans face making him cry out in pain and surprise and dropping her in the process.

"Why ya little witch! I'll get ya ferr thet!", the man yelled and pulled his pitchfork back in a motion to stab the seven year old with it.

Suddenly a desperate scream was heard, "STOP! Don't hurt her! She's done nothing wrong!"

The person pleading was a young girl a few years older than lisanna, she had the same hair and eye colour as the young dragon slayer and standing next to each other they could easily be mistaken for sisters, the only difference besides their ages was, the older girl's left arm looked like a tree limb that had been burnt

"Why shuldnt I kill er? The littl' witch attacked me first!"

"Please don't hurt her we were just about to leave anyway, there's no need to hurt her!"

The tall man looked back down at lisanna who was trembling in fear where he had dropped her "humph fine but ye better get! Get goin and take yerr cursed famly with ya!" The man then stormed off to do who knows what. "God I hate him! He's such an asshole!" The older

Girl mumbled under her breath, but lisanna caught it with her enhanced hearing. She smiled sweetly at lisanna

"Hello my names Mirajane but you can call me Mira", the older girl said after she helped lisanna up with her non demonised hand, lisanna couldn't stop staring at the hand but managed to drag her eyes away and looked at the girls face and said

"t-thank you for helping me, my names lisanna", the older girl appraised the younger one

"Where are your parents?", She asked

"I-I don't know" lisanna replied

"Are they around here?" Mira questioned

"I don't t-think so" was lisanna's timid reply

"Well why don't you come with us?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 **for disclaimer see chapter 1**

* * *

For lisanna the next week or so was a blur. Mira introduced her to her brother Elfman and the three of them got tickets for a train to the city of magnolia, Mira led them to a building in the centre of the bustling city, as they entered a short old man approached the three of them

"Are you these 'cursed children'I've been hearing so much about?", He asked sounding incredulous

"That would be us", Mira sighed

"But they're not cursed. Just me", she continued quickly

"Are you the master here?", she asked

"Yep, that's me!", the old man said looking proud of himself. Mira pulled her maimed arm out from the covering she had rapped it in to avoid stares

"Oh my!" The short old man exclaimed in surprise

"Come here child.", He commanded. Mira walked slowly over and hesitantly let the old man inspect her arm. After what seemed like hours for the older girl but was in fact only a few moments the old man released Mira's arm and stepped back

"Well I have good news. You are in fact not cursed", he said

"What!" Mira exclaimed

"I'm not cursed?!", She practically yelled

"No child in fact what you have there is a not uncommon form of magic called _take over_. With training you can learn to control it and use it in jobs. Although do tell me how you got this soul for the takeover", Mira looked confused

"Soul?" She asked

"How did your arm become like that, child?" The master said straightforwardly

"Our parents died about three years ago and we lived in the local church which functioned basically as an orphanage."

-Flashback-

Mira was quietly walking the corridors of the church listening to the sounds of her friends playing in the garden outside, she was looking for the pastor of the church father Cornelius to tell him that she had finished her chores in the main hall

As she rounded a corner she saw the door to Cornelius' study was slightly ajar, pushing it open she saw the old man blue faced on the floor with a man in a long formless black cloak straddled over his prone form, choking the life out of him.

"Father!", the girl exclaimed in fear as she rushed in and shoved the cloaked man off of him. Father Cornelius sucked in a couple of life giving breaths bringing him back from the brink of unconsciousness

"Mira!", He said in surprise. The man in the cloak spun around and reached for the white haired girl

"RUN Mira!", the old pastor yelled at her, but it was too late, the cloaked figure grabbed her left arm with an outstretched hand that was black and clawed

As soon as the 'man' grabbed her arm it released a tortured animalistic scream, one that conveyed only pure pain. Mira tried to cover her ears but the man had an iron grip on her arm and would not let go

Suddenly the entire room was plunged into complete and total darkness and the clawed man's screams abruptly stopped, as light returned to the room at well… The speed of light, the arm that then cloaked man had grabbed was gnarled, black and twisted and looking at it, Mira found it was her turn to scream

The young ivory haired girl's scream snapped the pastor out of his shock and he quickly tried to console the girl although being mindful of her 'damaged' arm

"Shush child. It will be all right", he said calmly and sweetly to Mira who had begun sobbing in fright over the events of the past few moments

"W-what just happened father?", the girl asked after sufficiently calming down even if she was still sobbing slightly

"I-I don't know child, all I know is I was being strangled by a demon and then you showed up."

"A demon?!", Mira exclaimed, shocked.

"Yes child, a demon. I had a … Uh … a deal with its master which went south and so he sent a demon to kill me and collect my soul.", Father Cornelius explained sounding rather nervous all of a sudden; something that the Strauss girl failed to notice

"What kind of deal?" Mira asked; curious.

"Uh… That doesn't matter now child, what matters is that we are both safe.", Cornelius said quickly changing the subject

"Can you feel anything in your arm Mira?", He continued to draw the conversation away from himself

"Yes I can, everything fells normal, I can move all my fingers but-but.", the girl sobbed again

"What's wrong with my arm father?", Mira asked quietly trying to avoid looking at it

"I don't know Mira", he replied

"Can you fix it?", she asked desperately

"I'm afraid not child" was the pastor's reply causing Mira to look sullen

"But fret not, just cover it up for now I'll see what I can do"

-Flashback end-

"I managed to keep it secret until about three weeks ago when my boyfriend who was the blacksmiths apprentice saw it and blabbed. The townspeople forced father Cornelius to kick us out saying we were a _danger_ to the children, although he and the mayor did convince them not to kill us straight up I suppose.", Mira finished her story

"Incredible, a satan soul takeover. Girl, I have very good news for what you have there is in fact a very powerful form of takeover magic that utilises the power of demons, if you learn to control it you could be insanely strong", the old master said excitedly

Mira's eyes glinted in a dangerous light "insanely powerful you say?", She asked; interested.

"Yes child. But where are my manners?", the old man asked rhetorically

"My name is Makarov Dreyar and I am the current master of Fairy Tail", he continued

"Uh my name is Mirajane Strauss and this is my brother Elfman and my … Uh… Sister Lisanna", Mira said indicating first to herself then to the two children on either side of her

Lisanna didn't see any reason why she couldn't be Mira and Elfman's sister, why not? She had called a dragon her mother. Besides she had already begun calling them big brother and sister in the weeks they have been together, they all looked so similar no one would bother questioning it

"Nice to meet all three of you", master Makarov said

"How would you youngsters like to join fairy tail?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 **disclaimer on chapter 1**

* * *

Receiving their guild marks Mira decided to have hers on the outside of her left thigh in purple, Elfman had his in blue on his right shoulder blade and Lisanna had hers in the same place as Mira but in white.

"I don't suppose either of you know any magic?", the kindly old master asked lisanna and Elfman. Before she could answer Mira cut her off

"no neither of them can do magic.", Lisanna thought for a second, she figured it was probably best that no one know she was a dragon slayer, if they did the might ask unwanted questions and find out she wasn't related to Mira and Elfman.

* * *

The youngest two Strauss siblings fitted in with the rest of the guild seamlessly but Mira was distant and hostile to anyone who approached her, she sat around all day reading a book on takeover magic the master had given her

Lisanna while only having known Mira for the best part of a month could tell she was dejected and frustrated that she wasn't making any progress.

"Hey Elfman?", She asked her pseudo brother

"Yea?", He said

"Have you decided what type of magic you're going to use?", Elfman looked thoughtful for a second

"No not really, I haven't really thought about it" he said honestly

"Well then why don't we learn takeover magic? It's supposed to be really strong and it will make big sis feel better! That way she won't be alone", Lisanna said excitedly.

"Y'know that's a really good idea! C'mon lets go see if master has any more of those takeover books right now!", Elfman said rushing off with Lisanna in tow.

For the next week or so she and her brother learned takeover magic in secret. Lisanna's training with Neiberosa and her young age made her body extremely susceptible to change and so as a result she was incredibly good at the magic and by the end of the week was performing basic full-body takeovers of animals of a similar size to her

Elfman on the other hand was struggling to master his 'beast-soul' takeover and could only get his right hand to transform and even then could only hold the transformation for a couple of minutes at best. Even so he was proud of himself and couldn't wait to master this new magic and become strong enough to protect his family. Or what was left of it.

Lisanna loved her new takeover magic, she had always loved animals, especially small ones like birds and mice; they made her feel like Neiberosa must have felt looking after her and now, with this magic she could get closer to them than she ever thought possible.

* * *

Takeover magic works by understanding the animal or whatever you as a Mage are taking over, then using that understanding and changing your body to match what you know, as such, there are two ways to create a takeover soul:

1\. Through absorption, you as a Mage use your magic to directly absorb the entity you are taking over, gaining knowledge of all its innermost workings and the entity's subsequent magic wavelength, making it incredibly simple to then transform into that entity. This method can be rejected by unwilling hosts and as a result can be quite dangerous when used against sentient or incredibly strong beings, such as demons.

2\. Through knowledge, this method uses complete understanding of the takeover in theory, if you know everything about it you can use that theory to change parts of your body and even preform full-body takeovers albeit with greater difficulty that through absorption, this method allows takeover mages to preform takeovers on species long dead and also is why many takeovers are slightly surreal in colour or shape. While rare and difficult some takeover mages can even use this to mix and match takeover souls, creating brand new transformations. There are many ways to gain the knowledge for the second type of soul creation but the simplest is probably to observe the entity you are creating a soul for, it's and your magic will mingle through prolonged periods of contact making changing easier as a whole. This method also has fewer risks to the Mage than the first option and is often considered more morally acceptable.

Mira looked over the paragraph again before slamming the book shut, _it's so frustrating: it says so much about other types of takeover magic like animal or beast soul but it only briefly mentions satan soul in like a paragraph, what's with that?!,_ She thought agitatedly

 _What if it isn't the book, what I just can't control this magic, or am I really cursed like those people said?,_ Mira thought, her thoughts continued in this fashion until she was quite depressed and feeling sorry for herself.

She got up from her table with her head down and left the guild telling herself that Elfman and that girl Lisanna would be better off without her.

At the other end of the hall a boy of similar age to Mira with spiky blond, almost gold hair and a pair of large black headphones on his head noticed the girl leave and more importantly her expression.

Laxus had seen her come in with her two siblings the other day but hadn't really talked to them. He had heard from his grandfather that they had come from a village where the townspeople thought Mira was cursed because of her magic

He thought about her expression and how sad she looked, he wanted to help but didn't want to pry. He decided he should probably go and tell his grandpa about it and having nothing better to do right now, shrugged his shoulders and went to go look for the old man.

* * *

"SHE WHAT?!" master Makarov shouted at his grandson

"She left. The new girl, the one with the white hair, the older one. She left looking depressed about ten minutes ago", Laxus said annoyed that he was having to repeat himself

"Oh dear" the master said

"What?", Laxus asked agitated

"Go find the girl's siblings and help them look for her", Makarov said to his grandchild

"What! Why? Why do I have to help look?", Laxus retorted

"BECAUSE I SAID SO!", Makarov yelled

"Ugh! Fine! I'll go help", Laxus said before stalking off to find the two newest members of the guild

 _He gave in easier than usual,_ Makarov thought as he watched the retreating form of his grandson _huh. Well no matter I've still got paper work to do._

* * *

Lisanna was playing with her brother and some of the other children in the guild when a boy with spiky blond hair and a smell similar to that of the master walked up to where they were playing.

"Are you two Mira's siblings?", He asked bluntly, pointing to her and Elfman

"Yes we are", her white haired brother replied

"Well your sister left about fifteen minutes ago and gramps told me to get you and then help you look for her"

"Big sis left?", Lisanna asked confused

"yea, she was looking all depressed and stuff, c'mon lets go look for her", Laxus replied

* * *

It took them about half an hour to find Mira, and it was Laxus who first spotted her. She was holding a large cleaver, as Laxus looked on curious she raised the large knife above her demonised arm and began to swing down

 _SHIT!_ Laxus thought as he rushed forward and grabbed Mira's wrist stopping the cleavers deadly arc but not before it cut slightly into the girls arm

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?", they both yelled at each other at the same time

The teenagers yell attracted the other two Strauss children and as they rounded the corner Elfman looking defensive and Lisanna apprehensive, Mira quickly pulled her arm from Laxus' grip and hid the knife behind her back

"Hey sis what's that behind your back?", Lisanna asked sweetly

"It's nothing Lisanna", Laxus replied surprisingly as Mira looked at him like he was crazy, he shot her a glance that clearly said 'don't do anything stupid with them around'

"Hey sis why are you sad?", Lisanna asked. Laxus turned to leave and brushed past Mira and as he did he grabbed the cleaver out of her hand before continuing on and turning a corner

"I'm not sad, why would I be sad?", Mira said unconvincingly

"Laxus said you were sad", Lisanna replied

"Who's Laxus?", Mira asked with one brow raised

"That boy that just left", Elfman supplied

"I don't know why your sad big sis but I know something that will cheer you up!" Lisanna butted in excitedly

"Ready Elfman?", she asked

"You bet!", He said, completely forgetting about the blond boy that had helped them

"TAKEOVER ANIMAL SOUL! DOG SOUL!", Lisanna yelled turning into a small white dog

"TAKEOVER BEAST SOUL! BEAR HAND!", Elfman yelled with his hand in the air which then became covered in thick black fur and grew claws

"Isn't this cool sis?", the little white dog that was Lisanna asked

"Now we have takeover magic, just like you!"

"Yea.", Elfman put in as they dropped their magic

"Now you're not alone anymore"

At her younger siblings revelation Mira began to cry which confused Lisanna because she thought it would make her happy not sad, but just as she thought this Mira began laughing as well, in her seemingly hysteric state Mira grabbed them both and pulled them into a hug

"Thank you. Thank you, I'm sorry", she hiccupped

* * *

After that incident Mira began working doubly hard to master her magic and after a week of nonstop studying and trips to the library Mira managed to turn her arm back to normal, granted with a small scar from where Laxus had saved her from cutting off her arm.

With her magic under wraps Mira started to fit in with her guild mates more, she got on well with Laxus and a girl named Cana, the others like a boy named Gray and the guilds two fatherly figures Wakaba and Macao liked having her around even if she was sometimes a bit violent

Unfortunately not everyone got along with them, a red headed girl in armour named Erza had started a rivalry with Mira, both being new to magic at the moment, their fights mainly consisted of verbal abuse and fisticuffs. But the whole guild knew that when the two girls learnt magic, well let's just say furniture repair ain't cheap.

While she didn't have anything against the other two Strauss children, Erza's personal war with Mira led for her to largely ignore Lisanna and Elfman, while they both got along well enough with everyone Lisanna didn't really feel like she had made any proper friends

Gray was cold and distant to everyone, Erza refused to talk to her, Macao and Wakaba were both old enough to be her father and Cana and Laxus hung around with her sister who she didn't want to disturb for fear of her wrath, Jet and Droy both acted like lovesick puppies around levy and when she wasn't around all they talked about was her, in fact the only people that Lisanna could really call friends was her brother Elfman and levy: a small girl with navy blue hair and a love of learning, but still levy was hardly ever around; either being chased by jet or Droy or learning more about… Well everything.

She loved the guild she really did. It was like they were all one big family, but still Lisanna couldn't help but feel that she didn't really have anyone to talk to.

That is until a boy who looked to be the same age as her with spiky _pink?_ Hair was brought it by the master who proudly informed everyone present that the young boy had fought off a couple of thugs from a local dark guild and that he would be joining them at fairy tail.

When the young boy was asked by Erza what his name was and what magic he used, he puffed up his chest and looked incredibly proud of himself

"I'm Natsu. And I'm a _dragon slayer!_ "


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 **the disclaimer's on chapter 1, seriously, its at the top**

* * *

Much to Lisanna's dismay, Natsu quickly joined Erza's posse, well … Sort of. He only hung around with them because that's where all the people of a similar strength to him hung around and the young boy took any and every opportunity to challenge anything that moved to a fight

One rainy day, after the master had firmly told Natsu to stop attacking his guild mates, he and the rest of them were sitting at a table and Natsu was eagerly telling them about his childhood so far

Lisanna and Erza were both shocked to hear about Igneel's inability to teach Natsu how to read and write, _Neiberosa taught me how to read and write, I could teach him_ just as Lisanna thought this, Erza beat her to the punch

"That is unacceptable! I will personally see to it that you are properly educated. You will be here at seven o'clock sharp tomorrow morning for tuition. Do I make myself clear?", Erza exclaimed, oblivious to lisanna's slight pout

"WHAT!? I don't need to know how to read or write! I onl…", Natsu was cut off by Erza requiping a sword and slamming the flat of the blade over Natsu's head

"Do I make myself clear?", Erza repeated in a stern voice

"Yes ma'am.", Natsu said looking down rubbing the rather comical bump on his head, "pfft" Gray snorted

"How can you have been raised by a dragon if you can't even take that?", He added looking smug

"I WAS RAISED BY A DRAGON!", Natsu yelled standing up

"OH YEA, PROVE IT", Gray yelled back also getting to his feet

"BRATS!", the master thundered from the bartop

"NO FIGHTING!", He admonished

"Well y'gunna prove it or what?", Gray said after begrudgingly sitting down

"I would, but I can't find Igneel, he's gone", Natsu said tearing up slightly

"Pfft, He probably never existed, dragons are extinct after all", Gray said

At that Lisanna bristled and Natsu abruptly stood up, knocking his chair back and ran out of the guild into the pouring rain.

Lisanna shot a glare at Gray so cold it surprised everyone present and ran to grab an umbrella from a bucket beside the bar before practically sprinting out of the guild after the pink haired dragon slayer.

* * *

She followed his scent trail easily enough even in the rain and found him crouched next to one of magnolia's famous canals, clutching on to his white scarf with the scale patterns that he never seemed to take off, she could smell his tears and could see in his face that he had been crying.

"Hey", she called, startling him

"You'll catch cold if stay here in the rain", she said walking over to him and holding the bright red umbrella over both their heads.

"Thank you… uhh", Natsu said in a sad voice

"Lisanna, my names Lisanna.", She put in and Natsu gave her a small smile but Lisanna could tell it was just an act

"My name's Natsu", he said pointing proudly to his chest causing Lisanna to giggle

"Hey Natsu … Could you tell me about your father?", Lisanna asked timidly, trying to cheer the boy up and to see if Igneel was anything like Neiberosa. After her question Natsu actually visibly brightened and a grin covered his face

"Sure…", He said completely forgetting his melancholy mood from moments before

* * *

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months and Natsu came in one day carrying what he claimed was a dragon egg which Lisanna offered to help him raise, help that Natsu gladly accepted

The forests that flank magnolia was where the two decided to hatch the egg, they found a clearing and Natsu declared the should build a hut for them to live in while raising the egg, acknowledging that he wasn't very good at building stuff (not for lack of trying mind you), Natsu focused on gathering materials while Lisanna built the hut

Once it was finally finished the two spent almost all their time in there together, playing and taking turns to warm and look after the egg. Lisanna's favourite game was to play 'family' where she and Natsu pretended to be married and that the egg was their child, it was fun and Natsu was so easy to embarrass.

The rest of the guild especially Erza and Mira expected both of them to not get along at all, they thought: _they're so different, there's no way they could ever agree on anything_

They were right of course, Natsu was hot headed, impulsive and always itching for a fight while Lisanna was quiet, collected and usually shied away from conflict.

But despite their differences they got along like a house on fire and were practically inseparable up until the egg hatched.

The egg hatching was a surprise for everybody, they all believed that a dragon would come out of that egg, but everyone was surprised when instead of a dragon they got a small blue kitten with angel like _wings?_

The shocked looks soon turned to smiles as the blue kitten slowly floated up, did a lazy backflip and promptly flopped down on top of Natsu's head with an exclamation of "Aye!" Causing a wave of laughter throughout those watching

"So what should we call him?", Natsu asked Lisanna

"Hmm", Lisanna thought, looking around the room she saw all the bright happy and amused faces of her guild mates

"How about Happy?", She asked

"Happy? Happy. Hmm. I like it, Happy it is!", Natsu said picking up the small blue cat off his head and holding him in his arms "Aye!" Was all Happy said in confirmation

"Ok everybody gather round, I'll draw a portrait", a skinny man with a Boscan (French) accent called

"Hey Reedus, can you draw happy as a dragon like we all expected him to be?", Natsu asked

* * *

It was a rule in fairy tail that to partake on a job of any kind, supervised or no you had to be of at least ten years of age, and while master Makarov knew that Natsu and Gray could both decently handle themselves he refused to alleviate the rule

As a result Natsu grew quickly restless and regressed back to fighting anyone and everyone, except perhaps not so strangely, Lisanna. When the famous Mage Gildarts returned from a ten year job he had been doing, the crash magic user took an immediate liking for the two new faces in the guild and offered to train them

While Natsu agreed readily, Lisanna was a bit more withdrawn in her agreement, she didn't really like fighting and preferred other methods to settle conflict, but Natsu managed to convince her that once they were old enough, they needed to be strong enough to take jobs and fight, Lisanna eventually conceded the point and the two spent most weekends training with Gildarts

By the time they were old enough to be brought on jobs with supervision, Natsu could probably complete the simpler missions on his own and Lisanna's versatility made her a valuable asset to any team

Lisanna generally took jobs with Mira and Elfman, often with an accompaniment of both Natsu and Laxus as backup (much to Elfman's dislike) and the three plus the occasional two made a frightfully effective team, plus the on and off nature of two team mates made them remarkably able to adapt to most situations

When Natsu and Lisanna were twelve they were allowed to take jobs without the supervision of another member and so the two did a lot of missions together as a 'family', just Lisanna, Natsu and Happy who rarely left Natsu's side

Their solo job taking and Laxus' disappearance from the guild caused the Strauss team to collapse, while they took missions together from time to time, they were no longer really considered a proper team by the rest of the guild, not that any of them minded very much

During all this time both still trained with Gildarts when he was around, and to his credit he did make a special effort to come in more often now that he had students to teach, but at fourteen their training changed. At fourteen Natsu found out about her dragon slayer magic.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 **disclaimer on chapter 1 (still)**

* * *

Natsu and Lisanna were heading out to forest to get some training in before Gildarts returned that afternoon, Happy had opted not to join them considering last time he went he got caught between one of Natsu's fire dragon roars and a Gildarts' patent crash.

"Hey Lis?", Natsu asked breaking the silence

"Hmm?", she responded

"Y'know that game Mira made us play the other day?", Lisanna shuddered at the thought, yes she remembered.

A couple of days ago Mira had forced everybody who was in the guild at the time to play truth or dare with her, most people were oblivious to this fact but Mira was an obsessive matchmaker and Lisanna figured out quickly that this was just one of her schemes

Her older sister's main targets were Natsu and Lisanna as well as a pair of gun slingers that had joined recently called Alzack and Bisca

Alzack was a shy boy only slightly older than her and Natsu with long hair that covered his right eye but despite this he had proven to be deadly with a magic pistol and in his two months of being in the guild no one had seen him miss a shot. He always wore a brown poncho in a similar reverence to Natsu and his scarf and when asked about it he said it was his fathers and that it had been passed down to him

Bisca was a short girl of a similar age to Alzack, her short lime green hair was almost perpetually covered by a western style Stetson hat, she used requip to pull guns out of thin air and while right now her collection was quite small she had the potential to be versatile and adaptable. By far her favourite weapon was her sniper rifle; her accuracy with it was astounding and like Alzack, had never been witnessed to miss. She had been in the guild a couple of months longer than Alzack but before he joined she hadn't really made an effort to get to know anyone.

Mira's game had been clunky and awkward (Happy certainly hadn't helped with his constant input of "he/she liiiiiiiiiiikes you" or similar) and after about an hour she simply gave up, as it was obvious almost no one was enjoying themselves, to her credit though she did manage to drive Alzack and Bisca off together under the excuse they were going to do a mission

"Yes I remember, what about it?", Lisanna replied

"Well … I thought we could do something similar, but without the dare bit.", Natsu said

"Like twenty one questions?", She asked

"sure.", He responded

"Ok, shoot" Lisanna said with a smile

"Ok. Why do you always use Arctic or snow themed animal souls?", Natsu asked in an intrigued voice

"Uhh … what do you mean?", Lisanna asked with an eyebrow raised

"Well I mean you always use snow animals, like instead of just using a tigress takeover you use the snow tigress and instead of a grizzly bear takeover you use the polar bear one instead, and even animals that don't have arctic variations are coloured white and light grey. Why?", He explained

"Uhh I don't know, I just do.", Lisanna said, she laid a finger on her chin and looked thoughtful

"I guess I've always just liked animals that are to do with snow, and just snow in general and besides Arctic animals are usually tougher are and stronger than other animals"

"Hmm I suppose.", Natsu said, accepting her answer

"Now it's your turn!", He said breaking into a grin

Lisanna out the finger back on her chin in her thoughtful pose

"Now what to ask? … I know!", She looked at Natsu who was walking beside her

"Do you like any other magic other than dragon slaying magic?"

"That's easy!", Natsu exclaimed

"I like all magic, but to use, not really. I mean I kinda want a secondary magic just in case, but none of them are as strong as dragon slayer magic and I can't really be bothered to learn a new magic from scratch"

"Makes sense", Lisanna said, by this point

"Now it's your turn again", she continued

Their game continued for their entire walk, they asked each other pointless questions, sometimes questions they knew the answer to already, like "what's your favourite colour?", or "what's your favourite animal", that sort of thing. They quickly reached their usual training ground but the two were enjoying their little Q and A so didn't really notice

"It's my turn again! Hmm… I don't know if you know the answer to this one but I figured I'd ask anyway … Do you know why your smell is weird" he asked before looking shocked with himself "WAIT! Not weird! You smell fine, kinda nice actually, it's just faded like it's old or being dampened by snow or rain…", Natsu paused after noticing Lisanna's face which had gone completely red from the high compliment among dragons that Natsu had said to her

"Why are you blushing? ... You shouldn't know that was a compliment! How do you know that was a compliment? I haven't told you that!", Natsu rushed beginning to blush himself

Lisanna briefly considered lying to Natsu but quickly realised that she and him knew each other to well to be able to lie about something like this, she sighed in defeat, resigned to tell him before her cooked up some farfetched theory

"Ok Natsu, you got me", she said sounding defeated

"Got you?", He said sounding confused and apprehensive; slightly dreading as well as looking forward to her reaction to his untended compliment

"I'd been meaning to tell you anyway, I suppose now's a good as time as any…"

"Tell me what?", Natsu complained, confused and flustered, lisanna sighed and silently vowed to get it over with quickly

"The reason I know that that was a compliment, the reason my scent is different and I suppose the reason I use Arctic animals as well, is … Is", she petered off once again losing her nerve, She looked at her feet which she shuffled nervously

"Is?", Natsu said gently coaxing her to tell him. Lisanna to a breath sharply

"Because I'm a dragon slayer!", She said quickly looking up to stare him defiantly in the eye, Natsu's mind promptly went blank while it processed this information and he intelligently said

"You're a what?", Lisanna sighed again and looked back at her feet

"A snow dragon slayer to be specific", she said timidly, irrationally fearing Natsu's reaction for keeping this from him for so long. Natsu's eyes widened slightly then he straightened as if hit by lightning

"THAT MAKES SO MUCH _SENSE_!", he exclaimed loudly, Lisanna looked back up at him oddly, regardless Natsu continued

"That explains why you were always so interested in Igneel, why your scent is muffled, like it's _snowing_ and why you always use snowy animals, because it reminds you of your dragon!", At this revelation, Natsu looked ecstatic, it explained so many of the small questions he had about his best friend

After his outburst he quieted down, "I guess that's also why you wanted to come on that mission with me and Elfman the other week", he said softly _what mission?,_ Lisanna thought _oh that mission_

-Flashback _-_

"Hey Elfman", Natsu called from the request board

"What!?", Elfman called back, bringing his nose out of a book he was reading

"There's a mission here that might make a good beast soul!", Natsu yelled, continuing the exchange

"Well bring it over then!", Elfman finished

The mission was a simple one: find and eliminate a large winged creature that was terrorising a snowy mountain village, the creature was nocturnal and looked to be about the size of a small house from the minimal sightings of the animal. The pay wasn't bad either

"Y'know Natsu" Elfman said

"You might be right, this animal sounds like snow wyvern and I could certainly use the power of a snow wyvern", Lisanna who had been sitting at the table with Elfman and so had heard the entire conversation thought _it probably is just a snow wyvern, but what if it isn't? What if it is mother? I need to go and check_

"I want to come with you", Lisanna suddenly exclaimed to her older brother and best friend

"Huh? Why? Me and Elfman can get it done by ourselves in no time, there's no point another person going, besides, aren't you like, two months ahead of rent right now?", Natsu said in response

"I don't care about pay, I just want to go!", Lisanna stated firmly

"Why?", Elfman asked narrowing his eyes in suspicion

"I … uh I want to go see the mountain.", Lisanna said

"Oh?", Elfman replied still in a suspicious tone

"Yea, I've never been and I hear they have some wonderful scenery out there, as well as animals I can't find around here to use as animal souls.", she explained, expertly lying as she went along

"I don't know that we'll be there long enough for you to create any animal souls", Elfman said, starting to believe his younger sister

"Well if there are animals I want souls of, I can just go back out there later to make them.", Lisanna finished her argument and hoped it would be enough to convince them, otherwise she would just have to sneak along

"Ok fine, you can tag along", Elfman finally conceded

"Well there's the mountain" Elfman said as they stepped out of the train station into a rustic little town covered with a layer of snow about an inch deep

"Wow", Natsu said in awe, standing straight having previously been leaning heavily on Lisanna due to his motion sickness

"You were right mamma, the scenery is amazing here", Happy said looking around at everything in wonder, Lisanna, who was in a similar state of wonder to Natsu and Happy just nodded in agreement.

"Come on you three, snap out of it, let's go find the guy who sent in the job", at that the trio plus Happy set off toward the centre of the town

As they entered the town hall, they were greeted by a short man with receding black hair and an out of place handlebar moustache

"What do you kids want!?", the man asked rudely, they all scowled and Lisanna who was probably the most civil at the moment answered

"We're the fairy tail wizards that accepted your job"

"I don't believe you! You're only children!", The man exclaimed angrily, all three's scowls deepened and Natsu turned to the left showing the red guild mark on his right shoulder, Elfman removed his jacket and turned around showing his blue guild mark on his shoulder blade and Lisanna lent her hips to the left so her guild mark on her leg was visible through the slit in her dress

"Oh!", the man exclaimed, astonished

"Forgive me!", He said bowing in apology

"I've been having a stressful week and I didn't expect them to send children", he continued

"Pfft, believe me, the three of us are more than enough to deal with your problem", Natsu said arrogantly

"I'm sure", the man said bowing again

"I am the mayor of this town and I sent that request out", he then continued

"What can you tell us about this monster?", Elfman asked

"Nothing more than what I put in the job application, we do know that it has a nest up on the mountain", the mayor said

"And it's been attacking every night?", Elfman asked

"Yes, it's putting a terrible stress on the shepherds"

"Thank you for your time", Lisanna said to the short man, she then turned to her comrades

"We may as well see if we can sort this out now, while it's still asleep", she said to them

"Yea that's probably a good idea", Elfman said

"Yea! Let's go!", Natsu yelled excitedly followed by an "Aye!", from his blue companion

Half way up the mountain, well into snowed in areas, Natsu caught the scent of the monster and was currently leading them in the direction the scent leaded, Lisanna had caught the scent in the snow covered town but chose to keep that fact quiet since Natsu would have found it eventually

It was Elfman that loudly stumbled across the wyvern, which was very much awake, and very violent

A short scuffle ensued, Lisanna turned into her polar bear takeover: turning her hands and feet into the paws of the animal, she grew a pair of small white ears on the top of her head and her teeth lengthened, her outfit also changed from the light blue and white dress she always wore for combat (A/N think her Edolas outfit in the anime) to a pair of heavy white combat trousers and a large white winter jacket that covered her completely and made her look larger than she was.

Lisanna used the strength the transformation gave her to toss Natsu high into the air, just as they had done during training many times, where Natsu used a 'fire dragons iron fist' to clobber the winged beast in the head, knocking it explosively to the ground with a crash, stunning the large animal which allowed for Elfman to easily use an absorption takeover on the felled monster

"Well that was easy", Elfman said

"Good work you two", he praised them as Happy brought Natsu down after catching him from Lisanna's throw

"Let's head back and tell the mayor the good news", Elfman continued, Turing to head down the mountain

"Wait, what's that noise/smell?", Natsu and Lisanna said at the same time, looking over a ridge the wyvern had seemed to be guarding they both got their answer: over the ridge was the wyvern's nest and in it were two small wyvern Cubs, they looked to only be about two or three weeks old but they were still about three times the size of Happy _they look just like small dragons, but nothing like Neiberosa.,_ Lisanna thought

"These two must be the reason that the wyvern started attacking the town", she said, then putting a finger on her chin

"I wonder if I can make a takeover soul for these two?", She thought out loud

"Uhh Lis, we have bigger concerns", Natsu said apprehensively, breaking Lisanna from her train of thought. Looking up, she saw what he was talking about, a massive snow storm (roll credits) was rolling towards them in a similar fashion to that of sandstorms, a massive wall of snow and ice was hurtling towards them at a frightening rate

"At that speed, it should be here in the next five minutes at the most", Elfman predicted and ran over the ridge and down to the town followed by Happy

"We need to get off this mountain. Now!", Natsu said, turning to follow Elfman

"No! We can't leave these two!", Lisanna exclaimed

"Well just use an absorption takeover on them and let's go!", Natsu argued back

"What! No! I won't! Let's just bring them and I'll make a soul for them later", she said

"I can't carry both of them and get off this mountain in time!", Natsu said eyeing the approaching storm warily

"And besides, I doubt they would willingly let me remove them from their nest when their so young"

"Well then just stay here and keep us protected with your magic then we can bring food up to them later when the storm passes", Lisanna asked desperately

"I may be the son of the fire dragon, but I'm not immune to the cold, my magic isn't enough to keep me, you and these two cubs warm enough to survive in a storm that big!", Natsu explained

"And besides do you know how much these two are going to need to eat in the next couple of years!? We can't physically get that much food up here without wings!", by this point the blizzard was very close to them now and so Natsu lashed out an ultimatum

"Look Lisanna we have two choices, you absorb them and let them live on as an animal soul or we leave them to this storm where they will most certainly die without their mother to protect them", he said desperately

"I won't leave them!", Lisanna said, starting to cry

" _I_ won't let you risk your life for a pair of wyvern Cubs that are probably going to die anyway!", Natsu yelled, at that Lisanna broke down crying in defeat

"Come on Lis", he said softly

"Absorb them and let's get out of here", Lisanna nodded quietly and slowly moved between the two confused animals

She placed a hand on each of their snouts "I'm sorry", she said crying before the three of them were engulfed in white magic, when the light died down only Lisanna was standing there, with tears streaking down her face, before she fell to her knees and bawled her heart out

The storm was practically on top of them now and so Natsu quickly but gently picked up Lisanna bridal style and sprinted down the mountain, yelling he engulfed himself and Lisanna in a warm fire that didn't burn but instead warded off the cold just as the blizzard caught up to them.

-Flashback end-

"You wanted to come to see if the wyvern was your dragon, didn't you?", Natsu asked, Lisanna just nodded in response

"The scenery was nice though", she said lightheartedly

"Do you train? With your dragon slayer magic that is.", Natsu asked

"Not really, I mean I do sometimes when you and happy are away doing longer jobs, I come out here and train a bit but snow dragon slayer magic is more for support that for attacking"

"That can't be true.", Natsu said

"Huh? Why?"

"Well how are you supposed to slay a dragon with just support magic? It's probably got attack spells, you just haven't mastered them yet!", He encouraged

"Yea! That must be it!", she said excitedly, having thought of that point before

"You should tell Gildarts then he can train us both to use dragon slayer magic", Natsu suggested

"No! You can't tell anyone", Lisanna exclaimed

"Too late", Gildarts said coming out from behind a nearby tree

"I was planning to ambush the two of you to see how you did in a surprise situation, but I guess I got caught up in your conversation", he explained

"I had even gone through the trouble of magically concealing my scent"

"But anyway, Lisanna, Natsu's right, we should probably work on training up your dragon slayer magic to at least Natsu's standard now. I won't tell anyone and I'm sure Natsu won't either", Gildarts said looking pointedly at the pink haired teenager

"But if you don't mind me asking, why don't you want anyone to know?"

"I... Uh... Well I don't want anyone to think that me, Mira and Elfman aren't related, since Neiberosa left they were the only family I had and I don't want to lose that because of my magic", she explained timidly

"But the whole guild is your family now, no one will mind", Natsu said, sounding confused

"Yea I know but Mira and Elfman are special to me, they're like more that everyone in the guild is", she replied, hoping that the two of them would understand

"I don't understand but whatever, it's your choice", Natsu said, shrugging

"Thank you!", Lisanna cried out, enveloping Natsu in a hug, which consequently caused the young man's face to turn as pink as his hair.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 **Disclaimer's still located in chapter 1**

* * *

As the years continued to pass and the dragon slayers reached sixteen, the two were out training with Gildarts.

"FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!"

"CRASH BURST!"

"SNOW DRAGON'S MOUNTAIN FIST!"

Lisanna's fist flew at Gildarts before he raised his left hand behind him and cleanly blocked it, using the connection as leverage she flipped over the older mage, while over his head she switched into her polar bear takeover; increasing strength

"SNOW DRAGON'S AVALANCHE CLAW!"

The snow enhanced kick was blocked by Gildarts other hand with a loud thud, but the opening provided was quickly exploited by Natsu; he rushed to Gildarts' unguarded left side

"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!"

The strike connected cleanly with Gildarts' kidney sending the man skidding about a foot to the right and slightly winding him, Lisanna flipped sideways landing next to Natsu and dropped out of her transformation to conserve magic, together they both rushed forward at Gildarts

"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!"

"SNOW DRAGON'S MOUNTAIN FIST!"

They called as one; Natsu cocking back his right hand and Lisanna mirroring the action with her left. In retaliation Gildarts simply waved his hand at them, creating a burst of magic that sent the two flying

"FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!"

Natsu called as he landed, creating a fire screen that while didn't do any damage allowed Lisanna to turn into her 'arctic fox takeover' which increased her speed and allowed her to sprint into Gildarts' blind spot

The arctic fox takeover turned Lisanna's feet into those of a fox and her hands grew petite claws that looked built for digging, she also grew a big white and fluffy fox' tale and small fox ears, the transformation also changed her dress into a grey tank top and a pair of black running shorts.

When she was in position she and Natsu executed a pincer movement; she ran at Gildarts with her enhanced speed and Natsu used fire on his feet to propel himself at a similar speed, when she got in range, she again changed into her polar bear form and swung an arm at Gildarts currently undefended head, at the same time Natsu swung a flame enhanced kick at the kidney he had hit earlier

Gildarts caught both appendages and held them in place with an iron grip, knowing they were trapped the pair released their respective roars on the man, causing him I'm to let them go

They jumped back, panting and paused to catch their breath, as the steam from that last attack cleared they were astounded, if unsurprised to see Gildarts without a scratch on him.

"Well done you to, you actually got me to move from my original spot, that's an achievement on its own. Anyway I've got a mission in the morning, one that will probably take me a while so this will be goodbye for now, don't slack on your training you two and I'll see you when I get back.", Gildarts said

"Ok thanks Gildarts" Lisanna said

"Yea! See ya old man, next time, we'll definitely beat you!", Natsu yelled enthusiastically

"I look forward to it", Gildarts shouted over his shoulder as he walked over the hill back to town

"Hey Lis. I'm beat, got enough energy to give me a boost?", Natsu asked turning to his friend

"yea I think so", Lisanna said straightening her back, she then pointed her hands in Natsu's direction and her palms glowed with a soft white light, as she did this Natsu felt his energy both magical and physical returning rapidly to his body

"Man that never ceases being helpful. Thanks Lis", Natsu said, standing up and stretching his arms

"We should probably head back to the guild, I'm running out of money and if I am then you almost certainly are", Lisanna said beginning to walk off

* * *

As the two walked into the guild side by side in comfortable silence, Mira thought briefly on her sister's and the pink haired dragon slayer's relationship; they were closer than most, but weren't a couple, they were in a state Mira affectionately called not-quite-an-item: they spent all their free time together, they did all the things couples do minus actual physical contact (and even then, Mira had her suspicions) plus there was obvious mutual attraction, at least to everyone but those involved and as much as it irked her, Mira knew that any input at this point could potentially damage their relationship so she was resigned to let them sort it out

Much to her chagrin, Alzack and Bisca had also fallen into a similar state and so she had no one to play matchmaker for and it was making her cranky and irritable, well more than normal, that and the fact Laxus had returned a couple of months ago with nothing to go by but a strange lighting shaped scar over his right eye and a nuts increase in power, his attitude had also changed; he was acting like a pretentious prick to everybody, including her

Noticing her mood had taken a turn for the worse at the thought of Laxus, she went up to the request board to find something she could beat up, immediately she spotted one she liked the look of

Kill the _Beast_ : a monster was terrorising a town a couple of stops down the train line and they needed a mage to clear it up. S class. _This'll be easy, I got S class a year ago._ Mira thought with a smirk. _Plus is I take Elfman and Lisanna with me, Master can't complain. Besides Lisanna said she needed money._ Her sister and Natsu had joined Elfman at the table they usually sat at so she made her way over to them

"Hey I got a job", she said as she sat down

"Ohh, is it good? Let me see!", Lisanna said enthusiastically, _she really has been spending too much time around Natsu_

"Here", she said handing her younger sister the flyer, Lisanna studied the piece of paper briefly before handing it to Elfman

"I'm in", she said as Elfman read the job.

"I wanna see", Natsu said, looking over Elfman's shoulder at the flyer

"Aww cool, you guys are going on an S class quest? I wanna come", Natsu exclaimed

"No! Absolutely not! It's a man's job to protect his family!", Elfman said angrily, his mannerisms had changed earlier in the year when his pet parakeet had disappeared, he had gotten it in his head that being a _man_ was more important than anything and that he should look after his family, not that his sisters minded even if he was, at times, a bit overbearing. Due to this attitude change Elfman's relationship with Natsu was a strained one due to his closeness with Lisanna, he knew deep down that Natsu could be trusted and probably could do a better job of protecting Lisanna than him but still, it irked him.

 _"_ Ah, let him come Lil-bro, it will be nice to have some back up and besides if what Happy tells me is true… He's as much family to Lisanna as we are", Mira said with knowing smirk at the two dragon slayers, the two slayers in question both blushed a deep Crimson before turning to glare at Happy

Happy had, wisely, moved from the hovering position behind Natsu to high in the rafters of the guild hall, knowing full well the dangers his parents joint glares could do to a man's (cat's?) psyche, hell, he had seen dark guild members stop and give up when his parents glared at them at the same time. _Must be a dragon slayer thing_ the small blue cat pondered.

* * *

The battle with the beast was not going well, when it had first attacked they had discovered that Natsu's fire and Lisanna's takeovers did little more than irritate the monster and to top it all off it was holding its own against Mira, to say the fight was not going well was an understatement but it wasn't hopeless, Natsu and Lisanna were basically unharmed and Mira could continue her battle into the early hours of the morning if she played her cards right

Elfman on the other hand failed to read the situation and after one particularly vicious punch that sent Mira careening away, before his younger sister and Natsu could attack the weakened beast to give Mira enough time to recuperate, he, felling less than useless in this fight decided to do something drastic; he ran up to the beast and began an absorption takeover

"No Elfman! Don't! It's too strong for you!", Natsu screamed at him, but it was too late, Elfman turned into the beast and he let out a blood curdling scream, one that spoke of untold pain. The screaming abruptly stopped and the beast looked down at them

"It didn't work". Lisanna stated with tears in her eyes

"if it had worked Elfman would have turned back into himself", the two dragon slayers could feel that Elfman's attempted takeover had replenished the monsters magic and energy, leaving it even stronger than before, now they were in trouble

"What the hell happened?!", Mira asked as she flew over

"Elfman tried a takeover on it", Natsu said dryly

"What! Why?!", the oldest Strauss sibling screeched

"We don't know but now it's back at full power and rearing to go", Natsu answered

"Shit! Lisanna I want you to stay back, let me and flame brain handle it", Mira commanded

"Yea… Ok.", Lisanna said, shocked and afraid for her brother

The fight continued as it had been, with Mira and Natsu taking turn wailing on the monster and Lisanna and Happy catching and supporting them, unfortunately it was obvious that the beast had them on the ropes and the two offensive mages were running out of steam, having been fighting for a good four hours, it was all the three mages (plus a cat) could do to dodge the beast's strikes

During the fifth hour Mira's magic suddenly gave out and an exhausted Happy only just caught her before the beast crushed her underfoot, the S class Mage did all she could to stay conscious but couldn't help passing out from exhaustion in the small blue cat's grip. Happy then took her into the town to get medical attention and rest

Now on his own Natsu was finding it increasingly difficult to avoid the beast which looked like it was barely tired _the bastard must have got Elfman's stamina,_ he thought agitatedly _,_ what Elfman lacked in power he made up for in resilience and sheer determination, which unfortunately was making this fight harder than need be

Natsu's tired musing was rudely interrupted by a punch flung at his body, as the boy was already in mid-air and without his winged companion it was all he could do to bring his arms up in a cross block, to prevent too much damage

The punch sent Natsu flying back at astounding speed before he collided with a tree, knocking the wind out of him and he sunk to the floor, conscious but breathless

"Natsu!", Lisanna exclaimed, afraid for his safety, he was only a few feet behind her and as she turned around she saw he was mostly fine and breathed a sigh of relief. The beast lazily made its way over to them and stood confused looking at Lisanna before roaring

"Elfman! It's me! Your sister, Lisanna!", Lisanna shouted in desperation with her arms outstretched, knowing that she couldn't hope to fight it even with her dragon slayer magic, trying to get her brother to recognise her and beat the beast

"Lisanna don't, it won't work", Natsu wheezed from his position behind her, she turned her head to him

"I have to try", she said sadly, Turing back to the beast she yelled

"Elfman! Listen to me! It's your sister! You can beat this! I know you can!"

Unfortunately Lisanna's encouragements fell on deaf ears and the beast continued to ponder her, not because he recognised her but because her smell was odd, giving up on its wondering the beast roared again and raised its arm

For Natsu and Lisanna the world seemed to move in slow motion, the beast's arm swung down in clearly telegraphed attack and Lisanna tried to turn into her arctic fox takeover but it was too close for her to dodge, her transformation was only half done by the time the beast's arm was nearly to her.

Natsu had screamed something, probably her name but the slow motion muffled it and made it unintelligible, Lisanna closed her eyes with an expression of fear on her face, the power that attack had probably wouldn't kill her but it would certainly break more than a few of her bones

Suddenly she felt a pair of warm arms rap around her waist and with speed that should have been impossible jerked her from the attacks trajectory, Lisanna opened her eyes to see Natsu with fire rocketing from his feet suspended where she had just been

In that instant time flowed normally again and the beast's fist connected to Natsu, with a sickening crunch the pinkette was sent flying away, colliding with another tree about 100 meters away

"Natsu!", Lisanna screamed in anguish before running over to him using the enhanced speed of the fox takeover.

"Natsu, Natsu! Please be ok", Lisanna pleaded with tears in her eyes as she reached him and turned him over, the boy looked like hell, his hair was caked in blood from a gash on his forehead, his left arm was obviously broken and his right looked dislocated, he had a line of blood running from the side of his mouth down his cheek

Natsu coughed, spitting up a bit more blood before he wearily opened his eyes to look up at Lisanna, the only thing his pain wracked brain could think at that image, _she looks like and angel_

"Natsu! Can you hear me", Lisanna asked letting tears fall onto his face, Natsu smiled slightly but winced at the pain that even that small action brought him

"Yea I'm fine, I promise", he joked weakly

"oh thank god", Lisanna sobbed before raising her hands and began replenishing his energy and dulling his pain, her magic couldn't heal but it could alleviate pain and purify diseases, preventing infection

"I'm so tired Lis", he said closing his eyes

"Oh no you don't", she said cupping his face in her hands

"If you go to sleep now y-you might not wake up!", she said beginning to cry again

"You're worrying too much Lis, we've survived worse injuries than these ones, I'm not going _anywhere",_ he said before his breath evened out as he slipped into unconsciousness. Then Natsu's body began glow a bright golden colour and specks of him began to float into the sky

"NATSU! WAKE UP!", Lisanna screamed, his body itself began to float and Lisanna mindless of his injuries tried to grab him and keep him with her, although, whatever was pulling him was too much for her and Lisanna quickly lost her grip, Natsu's body disappeared leaving only his blood soaked scarf in Lisanna's hands to show he was ever there in the first place

Lisanna looked shell shocked down at the scarf in her hands, unthinking and unfeeling, her brain failing to comprehend the fact that Natsu was gone, possibly forever. Her revere was broken by the beast roaring again, having located her scent and barrelling towards her

 _He's gone._ Lisanna thought distraught _he's gone and there's nothing I could do about it,_ the beast roared again, now only about fifteen meters from Lisanna's position, her sorrow turned to white hot rage and she turned to face the beast with an expression that would cause hell to freeze over

Her brain, still wracked with grief was useless in this situation and she simply acted on instinct, a blizzard began to blow around her kneeling form as she screeched, reaching a crescendo

"DRAGON SLAYER SECRET ART: SONG IF THE HILLS, FROZEN TOMB!"

Lisanna screamed and the blizzard intensified, making it impossible to see, suddenly the swirling ice shards making up the blizzard froze in their place, floating suspended for almost two seconds before rocketing towards the monster that had taken Natsu, the razor sharp snowflakes, clung to the beast, draining its magic supplies and freezing it solid and slowly creating a cocoon of snow and ice that assaulted it's nerves and rendered it immobile

The beast fell over completely spent and in an incredible amount of pain, it's body it its frozen casing, splayed on its back slowly reverted back into the form of Elfman due to the loss of its magic power and the lack of control insufferable pain created

Lisanna passed out due to exhaustion from a combination of the unfamiliar technique and grief, with tears streaking down her face, tightly clutching Natsu's scarf to her chest.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 **Disclaimer's where it always is, also just wanted to put a heads up, the idea of sending Natsu to Edolas was coined by darkfire1220 in his story 'the lost dragon slayer' (which I would give a hearty recommendation)**

* * *

By the time any of them woke up Lisanna's attack had melted and even in her grief ridden state Lisanna managed to tell her sibling what had happened since Elfman couldn't remember anything beyond absorbing the monster and Mira had passed out from exhaustion part way through, as had Happy. She told them that Natsu had taken Elfman out but had taken a nasty hit then disappeared.

"Y-you mean N-Natsu's _dead?_ ", Mira choked out once Lisanna had finished her story, she felt so useless, _what kind of S class Mage passes out half way through a fight and leaves it to two children!,_ She thought dejectedly . Lisanna violently shook her head in response to Mira's question

"No, he … He just vanished!", She exclaimed

"there was this light and …", She was cut off by Mira suddenly enveloping her in a hug, her big sister was crying on her shoulder, something Lisanna had never seen Mira do, ever, she realised with a start that Mira didn't believe her, her sister thought Natsu was dead and that she was making up a story to try and make it better

 _But he's not dead,_ Lisanna thought as she hugged her sister back

* * *

Natsu awoke with the mother of all headaches, he scrunched his eyes closed and tried to form coherent thought, he attempted to move his arm and a searing pain assaulted his brain causing him to cry out in pain

 _Ok let's do a damage report. Left arm's broken, righty's dislocated. Got four broken ribs, the rest are definitely bruised luckily the don't seem to have pierced my lungs, I think my left shoulder blade might have a crack or two in it as well,_ Natsu thought as he opened his eyes…

Only to be confronted with the sky having a greenish tinge and a river flowing free … Directly above him, _oh great… And a concussion,_ he thought sarcastically before passing out again

* * *

The guild did not take the news well, for the first time in recorded history the fairy tail guild hall was silent, there was none of the usual merrymaking or fighting, everyone was dealing with Natsu being gone in their own way but no one cried, no, mere tears couldn't tell of the grief enveloping fairy tail

It was a full day until noise began to invade the hall again but even then, it was muted and respectful, if it didn't need to be said; it wasn't.

Weeks passed, they held a respectful funeral for Natsu and everybody attended, hell, in the following days almost everybody in magnolia came and paid their respects, even Laxus. The guild began to return to some sort of semblance of what it was but it didn't seem as colourful, this was as much due to Natsu's absence as Lisanna's

Before the funeral she hadn't spoken to anyone bar Happy and even then she only gave one or two word answers to questions and after the service she and Happy had disappeared, no one knew where they went or why and they all silently prayed that they would come back

Lisanna had been thinking, hard, about Natsu's last moments, about what he had said and about what to do

"We've survived worse injuries than these ones", he had said and he was right, both of them, on multiple separate occasions had sustained and recovered from injuries far more serious than a few broken bones

After the funeral she and Happy went to magnolia's forests, more specifically to the clearing and the hut she and Natsu had raised Happy's egg. Once they arrived they were flooded with a torrent of memories, of all they good times they had spent with Natsu as a family

One particular memory stuck out to Lisanna: in the time before their training with Gildarts and during their raising of Happy's egg, she had been kidnapped by a forest Vulcan, she at the time had been terrified, but Natsu found her and beat the Vulcan down, rescuing her

At that time they made a promise to each other that if one of them went missing, the other would look for them and bring them home. Lisanna realised that he wasn't dead, he couldn't be dead, he was missing, something had taken him and she was going to find him

She was going to bring him home, back to fairy tail. _Back to me._

* * *

When Natsu awoke again, he was in considerably less pain and instead of a green sky and floating rivers his vision was met with the ceiling of a quaint lodge, finding that his right arm was popped back in its proper place and his ribs seemed to be mostly healed he sat up and looked around, he saw that his left arm was in a splint, his right in a sling and his chest and forehead were covered in bandages

He was in a very comfortable bed, across from him there was a window with its curtains closed, significantly dimming the room, Natsu could only tell that it was day time from the sun light filtering through the curtains, the room was small and the wall were simple log and wood structures giving it an earthy smell and a rustic feel

"Hello", he called and found his throat parched and rough, he saw a glass of water on a bed side table and, removing his right arm from its sling greedily drank. With his thirst quenched he tried again

"Hello!?", He called again, louder this time. A woman stepped into the room and Natsu gasped in surprise

"Lisanna!?", He asked. The woman who looked like Lisanna glared at him sharply

"What do you know of my daughter?!", She asked roughly

"Daughter?", Natsu asked with a bewildered expression on his face, he took a moment to scrutinise the woman before him, she was not, in fact, Lisanna, she was older, taller and her eyes were a startling green as opposed to Lisanna's sky blue

"Who are you", Natsu finally asked, the woman humphed

"My _name_ is Neiberosa", she said with a scowl

"Neiberosa? That's a dragon's name. That's Lisanna's dragon's name!", the boy exclaimed, pointing

"Dragons?", the woman mumbled before looking at Natsu, shocked

"Tell me boy! What is Lisanna's last name?", she suddenly asked

"Huh? Umm… She didn't have a last name but she took the name Strauss", he answered truthfully

The woman looked at him with a shocked expression before she schooled her face back into her permanent scowl that eerily reminded Natsu of Porlyusica, fairy tail's resident healer

"You're from Earthland, aren't you boy?", She asked in a harsh tone Natsu simply began to associate with her

"What?", Natsu asked, genuinely confused

"Earthland! Ugh … Can you use magic?!", She asked agitatedly

"Yes", he said plainly before raising his right hand and igniting it in flames

Or at least he tried to; the pink haired boy donned a look of extreme concentration that looked quite comical but still no fire "come on!", He almost yelled

"Perhaps I should rephrase the question. Can you normally use magic?", Neiberosa asked with an amused expression, Natsu turned to glare at her

"What's wrong with my magic!?", He demanded

"You can use it here", she replied plainly

"What do you mean I can't use it _here_?! Where is here?", He said calming down

"Here is Edolas", the older woman responded

"Edolas? Is that like a country? How do I get to Fiore from here!?...", as the dragon slayer fired off questions Neiberosa grew steadily more irritated before her glare finally managed to shut Natsu up

"Sorry", he said sheepishly

"It's just … Well I need to get home", the woman's face softened a bit at Natsu's downcast expression

"to answer your questions, yes Edolas is a country, no I don't know how to get to Fiore from here or anywhere for that matter and finally the reason you can't use your magic is well because you're here", she said simply

"What's that got to do with anything?", Natsu asked, Neiberosa sighed

"This will take a while to explain boy, so listen carefully…"

* * *

It was almost a month until Happy and Lisanna returned to the guild and many people were beginning to think that they weren't going to come back, so, needless to say the upon their return a party was held in the true fairy tail fashion

The party raised everybody's spirits but those who were close to the silver haired girl noticed that even throughout the festivities Lisanna didn't smile, her lips would turn up at particularly silly antics but it never reached her eyes

Lisanna noticed a number of differences around the guild, first and foremost Gray seemed much tamer and laid back and was keeping his clothes on much longer than he normally would and secondly, a number of people were missing namely Mira, Laxus and the Master

When she asked, she found out that Mira could no longer do her satan soul takeovers for whatever reason and she and the master had headed out to find an expert to help her, no one on the other hand knew or cared where Laxus was

* * *

Neiberosa explained that Edolas was a parallel of Natsu's world, called Earthland and that the reason he couldn't preform magic was because magic worked differently in Edolas, in Earthland everything has a specific amount of replenishable magic energy either stored inside their body in someway or making up the bonds that hold it together

In Edolas on the other hand magic was a resource and didn't replenish itself and no living thing, besides the exceeds which Natsu was surprised to find out Happy was one of, had a store of magical energy inside their body and that the bonds making up the smallest structures were just different and hard to understand

The magic in Edolas permitted the air which caused the floating islands and rivers, to use magic required a specific machine made with or of a lacrima that took magic out of the air to power itself, it was a easily accessed resource, but according to officials, it was a resource that was running out, so in an effort to conserve magic the king of Edolas banned all magic guilds and forced them to disband, unfortunately many guilds refused and a war against Mage guilds was being waged and had been waging for almost 4 years

Natsu also learned that in Edolas there was another person just like you, but in every way, different or in other words a parallel you, it turned out that Edolas Neiberosa was the parallel of Lisanna's dragon and that she was the birth mother to this worlds Lisanna, who was fighting in the Mage war against the government in this world's fairy tail

After all this was explained Natsu had but two questions

"Do you know how I can get back to Earthland?", He asked firstly in earnest

"I'm afraid not, I had heard of the government experimenting with stealing magical energy from Earthland and I expect that's how you got here, but I have no idea if they work backwards"

 _I guess I'm joining the army,_ Natsu thought with a serious face

"Thanks for healing me and explaining that old lady", Natsu said cheekily as he got up and began walking towards the door, the woman in question looked insulted and opened her mouth to berate the oddly cheerful boy but he beat her to the punch with his second question

"Say… Do you know a man named Igneel?"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

 **By now you should really know where the disclaimer is**

* * *

The port town of Hargeon is a busy place of commerce and tourism, in one secluded part of the Hargeon high street is a quaint little magic shop and the old man who owns and runs this store currently has one customer

"Do you have any celestial keys?", a busty young blond asked the owner who barely came up to her waist

"We have one", he replied pulling out an intricate box and opening it

"The key of Canis Minor: Nikora", he presented, the blond pulled out the key and felt it out with her magic

"The key of the little dog! I'll take it, how much?", She asked excitedly

"That'll be 20,000 jewels madam", he said, she look stunned at the (in her opinion) ludicrous price

She sat down on the counter and lent her body forward, giving the man an ample view of her breasts down her shirt

"Come on now, I know you can give _me_ a discount?", She said sweetly, accenting it with a wink

* * *

"What a stooge!", the blond exclaimed walking angrily away from the shop, fitting the key of Canis Minor into a brown pouch at her belt

"Only a 1000 jewel discount! My sex appeal is definitely worth more than a measly 1000 jewels!...", as she continued her rant she noticed a group of girls surrounding something

As she approached she began to hear what the assembled crowd of women were saying "its salamander!", "isn't he just _dreamy_ ", "he looked at me! He looked at me!" And such.

 _Salamander?_ The blond thought as she pushed to the front of the crowd and came face to face with handsome man with spiky dark blue hair and an odd tattoo just above his right eye which looked like two C's back to back

As he looked at her, her heart began to beat faster and she became entranced in his face _what's going?_ She thought to herself _what's happening, why is my heart beating so fast, is this true love?_ (A/N part of me died writing that, I hope you appreciate it!)

As the girl's thoughts continued to drift further into the realms of cheesy clichés and the notion of love at first sight, a woman dressed in a dark purple, almost black dress with a cut running up the entire left leg and platinum white hair barged through the wall of females

"Natsu?!", She exclaimed apprehensively as she got to the front of the crowd, as she met salamander's gaze her eyes hardened and her mouth set in a slight frown

"My, who might you be, my dear?", Salamander asked in a deep nasally voice, the woman in question snorted and turned to leave

"it doesn't matter, you're not who I'm looking for", many of the girls present looked outraged at the woman's reaction and the blond was initially among them but before she could join the others in voicing their outrage she realised that she barely knew the man, why should she fight for him?

At this revelation, she looked at his hands, on his right there were two rings, one that looked like a sleeping charm and the other was undoubtedly a love charm, an illegal type of holding magic that made anyone in the holder's specified desires love them unconditionally, the charms don't work on anyone who is aware of them or have a strong magical presence and so she instantly snapped out of it

"Calm down ladies, she probably just isn't aware she is in the presence of a celebrity", salamander admonished his crowd before turning to the woman

"I am the great mage salamander! Do you now see your folly?", He said throwing his arms out for added flair

"No you're not.", the woman replied

"What?!", He asked, aggravated that this woman wasn't basking in his greatness like she should be

"You're not salamander", she replied simply in a quiet voice

"What are you blabbering about?! Of course I am! Isn't that right ladies?!", He practically yelled, shouts of "yea" and "show some respect" were heard in response, the woman sighed

"Yea whatever", she said dismissively before walking off with her head down

Salamander's assembled crowd looked furious at the girl's dismissive response to their hero and looked like they were about to jump her retreating form as a mob

"Calm down ladies, she doesn't know what she's missing…"

Before the blond had to endure the narcissistic man talking about himself she slipped away and ran to catch up to the white haired woman, by the time she caught up the woman was standing looking at a little blue cat with a green pouch on its back, she looked like she was talking to it

"Hey!", she yelled waving her right arm above her head to get her attention, the girl turned around and looked at the blond strangely

"Hello?", she asked

"Hi, I just wanted to say thanks for earlier", the blond said

"What did I do?", the white haired girl asked

"Oh, yea, that man from earlier, he was using charm magic and when you barged in it broke me out of his spell, so thanks", she replied

"No problem" the white haired girl responded in good nature

"You said something about looking for someone, if you don't mind me asking who are you looking for", blondie asked

"Ah. His name is Natsu he's my uhh…", she trailed off trying to find the right word

"Husband?", the blue cat put in with a cheeky grin, the white haired girl sighed with a blush tinging her cheeks

"Yes Happy, I suppose so", she said

"Did that cat just talk?!", the blond girl screeched, pointing

"Aye sir!", was the cats simple reply before he turned to the white haired girl

"I'm hungry", he said and a loud growl from his stomach was heard as if trying to convince the girl of its plight, The girl in question laughed at the cat's stomach, it was a high and joyous laugh that seemed to cheer up the atmosphere

"Come on then! Let's get you fed!", she said and the cat promptly sprouted wings and let out an excited "Aye!", jumping into the air

By the time the blond had gotten over her shock the other two were already a few paces ahead of her

"Wait", she called and the blue cat and his companion turned around

"Let me treat you to lunch, as a thank you", she said

"Really? Thanks", the white haired girl said

"It's no problem, my name's Lucy by the way", the blond girl said, sticking out her hand

"Lisanna", the white haired girl said, shaking Lucy's hand

* * *

The trio went to a relatively inexpensive diner near the port, it turned out that Lisanna wasn't much of a talker but that didn't really matter to Lucy as she just talked and talked nonstop only really breaking to ask Lisanna or Happy a question

 _So this is what normal girls are like?,_ Lisanna thought sarcastically

"Hey I just thought of something.", Lucy said and actually paused, Lisanna and Happy looked up from their meals to look at the blond, inviting her to continue

"Charm magic doesn't work if you are aware of it or have a strong magical presence and you said you didn't know he was using the charms, does that mean you're a mage?", Lucy asked Lisanna. Both Lisanna and Happy looked surprised at the blonde's deduction

"A regular Sherlock Holmes aren't you?", Happy asked rhetorically, Lisanna smiled a small smile before answering Lucy

"Yes I'm a mage", she said simply, Lucy's eyes lit up

"Really? What magic do you use!?", Lisanna smiled at the girl's enthusiasm

"I'm a takeover mage, I use animal soul takeovers. I assume since you know what you're talking about that you're a Mage as well?", She said

"Yup, I'm a celestial spirit mage!", the blond said proudly

"Really? That's a rare form of magic, if I remember correctly it uses spirit keys to summon varying forms of spirits, used for different purposes", Lisanna said knowingly

"That's right! There are two types of keys, silver keys and gold keys, silver keys are relatively common and summon weaker spirits that are more useful in day to day situations, but gold keys, there are only 12 gold keys in existence and they each summon one of the spirits of the zodiac, they are incredibly rare and they summon powerful spirits built for battle, I am currently in possession of 3 of the 12 golden zodiac keys! Taurus, Aquarius and Cancer", Lucy rambled

"Impressive", Lisanna said but was quickly cut off by the overexcited blond sitting opposite her

"I'm going to join a guild soon! A guild is a place where a group of wizards gather together and do jobs…", Lucy continued on

"I know" Lisanna tried to put in but Lucy couldn't hear her

"I'm aiming to join fairy tail, it's like the biggest and most popular guild there is, all their members get into all kinds of trouble though but all of their wizards are like super famous like Erza and Mira, she's known as miss fairy tail and is almost always in sorcerers weekly…", Lisanna sighed and toned out Lucy's incessant jittering, turning to her thoughts

 _After the incident Mira could no longer do her satan soul takeovers, when she and the master, as well as Laxus as it turned out, sought out professional help, they found out that souls created by absorption, if strong willed can prevent the takeover Mage from using them if they deem the wizard unworthy of their power which is also why big brother Elf can't call the beast takeover. After the mission, Mira took a hit to her confidence and her personality did a complete 180 after she found out her magic wouldn't work anymore, she's dedicated herself to promoting fairy tail and helping around the guild but she's nowhere near as strong as she used to be_ Lisanna internally monologued

"You ok mama?", Happy asked, breaking her out of her thoughts

"Huh? Yea, I'm fine Happy, just thinking", the white noise of Lucy's talking was starting to grate on the blue cat's nerves

"Hey mama can we go?", He asked quietly

"Yea, I think it's probably time we left", she said back

"Anyway Lucy!", She said cutting Lucy out of her chattering

"Me and Happy should really be going, so thank you for the meal and I hope you manage to find your way to fairy tail", Lisanna said bowing slightly with a small smirk hidden on her face

 _"_ Oh. It's no problem, I hope you find who you were looking for", Lucy said back

"Yea, me too", Lisanna said softly as she left with Happy on her shoulder

* * *

First division of the royal guard commander Pantherlily's lieutenant: Ignea Rosa could often be seen out in the forests of the Edolas just enjoying the views and thinking about his life, the prodigy boy could be no older than 18 but it was hard to tell only from his voice

He wore a white leather overcoat with light grey combat trousers, his choices of clothing fit with his spiky hair which was also a platinum white, his entire getup seem to contrast with his eyes; his eyes were charcoal but seemed to be a startling ebony against his attire and hair

When out in the forest the lieutenant's eyes sparkled with a childish amazement but on the battle field his entire demeanour changed, he became serious and determined. The boy wore a cowl to cover the lower half of his face claiming it was severely damaged in a fire and he didn't much like to leave it open

What set this boy apart from the other lieutenants and the rest of the military was his weapon; Ignea carried a magical quarter staff of a dark red colour which was streaked with orange, blue and salmon pink giving it a resemblance to an open flame on his back, it gave his otherwise white, ghostly appearance a splash of colour

The staff was in fact a rare fire weapon called a dragon's fang and was especially powerful if used correctly; and use it correctly Ignea could, in fact he was the only one who could use it, if anyone other than him tried to wield weapon it would either straight up not function or explode in their face

Pantherlily landed softly behind the boy who was seated staring forlornly into a clear stream, trickling lazily along. Captain Pantherlily was an oddly large exceed standing well over six feet and towering above everyone in the army, his fur was pitch black with a white muzzle, small ears and a large scar running down his left eye

Despite his gruff expression he always donned, Pantherlily was a caring and forgiving person, he had been exiled from his homeland Extalia after he saved the life of a small human child and while he resented it, he knew that the queen's hands were tied by politics and tradition and it would have been damaging to her reign and the stability of both Extalia and Edolas if she had let him go unpunished

He had joined the human military under the guise of revenge but in actuality he was just keeping an eye on them so they didn't try anything stupid as it was no myth that the human population hated the exceed's rule over them, and none more than Faust; the current king of Edolas

He had been given his position as first commander as an honorary position but had quickly proven he was worth of it and was largely considered the strongest of the military with his magical sword: buster marm, which could change size from a tiny knife to the size of an island at its wielder's command

 _"_ What brings you here Pantherlily?", His lieutenant asked in an implacable accent

"the debriefing starts in an hour Ignea, if you want it get there on time I suggest you get going", the large black exceed said gruffly

"You were thinking about it again weren't you?", Pantherlily asked in a much softer voice

"It's been so long Pantherlily, it's been a year and a half and we still have so much more to do", Ignea said dejectedly

 _"_ I know, but we'll be done sooner than you know then you can go home", Pantherlily consoled, the White haired lieutenant stood up and stretched

"Yea, I guess you're right" he said.

"Don't worry _Natsu_ you'll be home soon"

* * *

Lisanna and Happy had spent the day in Hargeon, exploring and admiring the views, they were seated by a fountain at the highest point of the town, looking out over the thriving port and out into the ocean, the sun had set about half an hour ago and the day was steadily dimming

They had sat down here to view the sun set, something they did as often as they did, something they always used to do with Natsu. Happy was happily nibbling on a fish, looking quite content and Lisanna was staring out to sea

In these rare moments of peace and silence Lisanna noticed how cold she was, it wasn't an uncomfortable cold, it was the sort of cold that told you that you should probably put on a jacket, she almost always was at this temperature, her magic made sure of it

And it had its benefits, the cold never bothered her in the slightest and she was partially resistant to heat, she probably wouldn't even notice that her natural body temperature was lower than everyone else's, if it wasn't for Natsu

She had inadvertently found out that Natsu's fire magic cancelled out her snow magic's effect on her body temperature and made it rise to normal levels, something that Lisanna loved the feel of and found relaxing; in the same sort of way that people find hot tubs or a cool drink relaxing

When she was around Natsu for a length of time, their magics mingled and she got the effect slightly but it was much keener when there was actual physical contact, and now that she thought about it, she had subconsciously tried to make contact with Natsu as much was acceptably possible given their relationship

She blushed slightly at that thought _I can't believe I miss him so much, so much so that I miss felling warm,_ Happy noticed his mother's blush and smiled slightly

"You're thinking about papa again aren't you?", He asked slyly, Lisanna's blush deepened somewhat before disappearing, being replaced with a downcast look

"Yes Happy, I am", she sighed, Happy place a paw on his mother's leg reassuringly

"We'll find him mama", he consoled

"Yea, I know, but it's been so long, it's been a year and half", she said softly looking up at the darkening sky and the emerging stars

"I miss him", she finished in a sad voice

"Did you hear about that party on salamander's boat?", Happy and Lisanna heard a girl ask her friend

"Salamander? Oh yea, he's that fairy tail wizard isn't he?", the second girl asked

"that's the one, I hear it's a super exclusive party and only the hottest got invited…", Lisanna stopped listening, her eyes having hardened at the name salamander and then igniting in silent anger to learn he was imitating a fairy tail wizard

"Come on Happy, we've got a party to crash", Lisanna said in a clam tone that barely concealed her anger


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 **Pah! Disclaimers? Who needs em? (It's in chapter one)**

* * *

"Would you like a drink my dear?" Salamander asked the pretty young blond sitting across from him

"Sure", she responded in good nature _ugh, I can't believe I'm doing this. Well if it means I get into fairy tail then I'll endure it,_ Lucy thought as she reached for a glass

"Not so fast my dear, let me", salamander said with a smirk he evidently thought was sexy before using magic to make the liquid in the nearby cups float and form spheres as if they were in zero gravity

"Open wide", salamander said and with a grimace she did as she was told, salamander moved the orbs of liquid towards her mouth, as they got close, grandfather crux's analysis of the liquid came in and Lucy stood up and slapped the orbs away with the back of her hand

"What do you think you're playing at?!", She asked putting a hand on the pouch holding her keys, it turns out that there was a sleeping drug in the drink. Salamander's face twisted into and evil grin

"You can come out now boys", he called behind him and the curtains separating them from the deck of the luxury cruise ship they were on opened, revealing a group of about twenty burly men, many of whom had unconscious girls slung over their shoulders. Lucy took a step back in surprise

"Wha-what's going on?", She intelligently asked, salamander chuckled darkly

"I'll put it simply for you my dear, I know of someone who would pay a pretty penny for a group of gorgeous young girls such as these and you, well, I could probably get as much for you as all these girls combined", he said menacingly

"I won't let you", she said glaring and reaching to pull out Taurus' key, but before she could salamander created a tendril of purple fire and quick as a snake snatched her pouch from her belt and held it in his hand

"A celestial spirt mage eh? Well too bad, you're completely useless without these", he said condescendingly before throwing the pouch out a nearby porthole, into the ocean

"No!", Lucy cried, reaching a hand out, she turned slowly to once again face salamander

"What are you going to do now my dear?", Salamander said in mock sympathy, just as he looked like he would continue his gloating, the ceiling caved in with a crash and before them stood the white haired woman from earlier

As Lisanna landed she felt a bit nauseous and quickly casted troia to prevent herself from getting seasick, looking around she quickly assessed the situation, noticing the blond aspiring mage they had met earlier in the day she called out

"Happy, get Lucy out of here", Happy gladly followed the command, swooping down through the hole with an

"AYE MA'AM", grabbing Lucy and swooping back out again, Lisanna then turned and glared at salamander who smiled smugly

"So you decided to accept my invitation after all, get her boys!"

The three men closest to her lunged with their arms out stretched and Lisanna quickly ducked, swung her leg at the nearest attacker, knocking him on his ass, as the first fell, Lisanna reached above her head and grabbed the second man's arms and using his momentum, threw him into the third man, knocking them both out

She stood back up and didn't even look like she had done anything, many of the assembled men were shocked at how quickly she had dispatched three men at least twice her size, in a dress no less but salamander just looked furious

"All of you! GET HER!", He screeched madly. But just as the rest of the mob could charge at her, the ship veered wildly and was flung into port by a massive tidal wave

"I said to get the ship! NOT ME AS WELL!", Lucy screamed at a woman with blue hair and the lower half of a fish

"Oops, it looks like I hit the boat with that attack", the mermaid said with disdain

"YOU WERE AIMING FOR ME!?", Lucy screamed incredulously

"Don't call me again, I'm going on a date with my boyfriend...boyfriend", she continued unabated

"Yea, you don't need to rub it in", Lucy mumbled

"And if you _ever_ drop my key again, there will be hell to pay", the blue haired woman said glaring into Lucy's face before disappearing in a flash of light

"Salamander!", Lisanna called from atop the wrecked ship, catching the attention of everyone present

"You … You! You bitch! You ruined EVERYTHING!", Salamander screamed while he threw a tantrum like a toddler

"Let me see your face", Lisanna called down

"What?", was salamander's smart reply as he turned up to face her

"you say you're from fairy tail, BUT IVE NEVER SEEN YOU BEFORE!", Lisanna shouted at him while tilting her hips so her leg was visible through the slit in her purple dress, showing her white guild mark

"Bora, I think she's the real deal!", one of the henchmen said, suddenly terrified

"IDIOT! I told you not to call me that!", Salamander, now know as Bora screamed turning on the man.

"Bora of prominence, so this is what you've been doing since getting kicked out of Titan's nose", Lisanna said calmly

"What?! Lisanna's in fairy tail!", Lucy exclaimed, surprised, Happy just snickered

"Aye sir! She tried to tell you earlier but you were too busy talking", the little blue cat joked causing Lucy to blush

"Ugh! How do you like this bitch! RED SHOWER!", Bora screamed and a torrent of small purple flames flew at Lisanna, many hitting their target and creating a smoke screen

"Pfft. You call that fire?", Lisanna scoffed as she leaped gracefully into the air, changing into her wyvern takeover, the takeover changed her clothes into a form fitting plate male armour that looked like she was covered in silver scales that left her hands, head and most of her stomach bare, it also left her shoulders unprotected but her neck and arms were covered

The physical changes were also prominent, four bat like wings protruded from her back in pairs, one pair just below her shoulder blades and the other just underneath the back of her ribs, the wings were unarmored but were the same shiny grey of the rest of her takeover, the nails on her hands grew longer and sharper, becoming talons capable of ripping through poorly tempered metal, her feet were covered by strange garments that were fused with the form fitting armour, they looked like four pronged metal stilts, one thick heel and three curved and sharp from prongs that click menacingly as she walked

While in this transformation, many had mentioned that it looked remarkably like a combination of her sisters satan souls and Erza's constant armoured garb and while she said it was a coincidence Lisanna had, in fact designed the takeover as such, the power of two wyverns, young or not, had taken a lot of time for Lisanna to master and by designing the takeover as something she was familiar with had helped the process

Many of the henchmen wolf whistled at the curve revealing attire Lisanna's magic had changed her into but they were quickly silenced as she swooped down, appearing only as a silver blur and kicked each of them, sending them flying back into the ocean

"The real salamander could make hotter fires when he was _seven_!", Lisanna taunted floating about fifteen feet from Bora who was shaking in fury at having his men defeated so easily

"HOW DARE YOU!", He screamed indignantly

"I AM THE GREAT BORA OF PROMINENCE! YOU PALE IN COMPARISON TO MY POWER", he continued and a purple seal appeared in front of his chest

"RED SKULL", he screamed and a large red fireball in the shape of a skull hurtled towards Lisanna at startling speed, in retaliation Lisanna simply raised her hands and caught the fireball, the force of the spell however did push her back trough the air but she kept her hold of the fire and gained control

Bora's mouth hung open in unadulterated surprise as did Lucy's, Lisanna then proceeded to throw the fireball over Bora's head and into the remaining crowd of henchmen, causing and explosion that knocked pretty much all of them out, Lisanna whistled in appreciation

"That attack wasn't half bad", she complimented but Bora was beyond comprehension with rage and could only splutter in disbelief. Lisanna's joyful and taunting expression suddenly turned serious and the glare she shot at Bora sent shivers down even Lucy's spine

"But! You have done two things that are unforgivable this night Bora!", the man in question glared up at her although his anger quickly turned to fear as she shot at him like a ball out of a cannon

"PROMINENCE TYPHOON!", he screamed in retaliation, a spiral of torrential fire burst from a seal over his chest but it didn't affect Lisanna in the slightest, she grabbed each of his shoulders with the strange footwear digging into him and flew straight into the air

"The first was using the good name of fairy tail for such a disgusting scheme", Lisanna yelled in a dangerously calm voice high above the port town, then, she did a violent front flip in mid air, releasing Bora at the lowest point, throwing him towards the ground at a frightening rate

Lisanna flew down parallel to him as he was forced into a dive by the force acting on his body, Bora his the ground creating a crater and bounced, Lisanna had landed next to him and changed into her polar bear takeover, at the peak of the trafficker's bounce; time seemed to slow

She spun in a blisteringly fast roundhouse kick but to all those watching she seemed to be going at a snails pace, he foot connected with Bora's chest, breaking all of his ribs with a clear snap adding them to the list of physical injuries he had sustained; joining both his arms and his right leg

Time returned to normal and Bora flew at the insane speed he seemed to be averaging at during this fight into town, crashing violently through many houses and businesses before coming to stop in a broken pile at the peak of the town, in a pile of wreckage

Lisanna stood over him back in her normal form, looking down at him without an ounce of sympathy, knowing he would live

"And the second was using Natsu's name for the same reason", she said softly before turning away as Bora passed out from his injuries

Happy caught up with her easily and was closely followed by Lucy

"that was amazing!", Lucy exclaimed jumping into the air in excitement but her jubilation was cut shot by the sound of quickly marching feet , the source of which turned out to be a battalion of the magic council's Rune Knights

"Crap! It's the council! Let's go!", Lisanna said and grabbed Lucy's wrist and ran in the direction of the station

"Wait. Where are you taking me?", Lucy asked in genuine confusion, Lisanna simply grinned back at her

"You said you wanted to join fairy tail didn't you?", She rhetorically asked and Lucy's face beamed in realisation

* * *

The debriefing was boring, it always was, he had been there dammit! He knew how it went! But his duties as a lieutenant directly under Pantherlily meant that he was required to sit through these meetings around the Kings table

Generally the lieutenants were left out of the general discussion, generally the lieutenants were left out entirely but Ignea's status to be allowed to carry his own magical weapon granted him special privileges like only having to directly answer to Pantherlily and king Faust but it unfortunately meant he had to be more directly involved in the planning and strategic aspects of an attack, something the boy wasn't very good at

It was widely accepted in the capital that Ignea held the power equal or even exceeding the commanders and that if one were to retire he would almost certainly take their place, it was also well known that he was an idiot or at least he seemed to be; he was easily the most eligible bachelor on the continent but he barely spared glances and polite greetings to potential suitors of either sex, he was air headed and brash, it wasn't very often the young lieutenant could be seen sitting still for any reason and as had been previously stated was rubbish at strategy; preferring to leave those aspects to strategists in the divisions he overlooks

Another thing that marked Ignea out from basically all of the rest of the Edolas military was he was generally peace loving, the boy loved a good fight, but nothing that was life or death, he would almost never directly act in battles unless a decisive win was necessary and hated death on either side, preferring to capture his enemies

Unfortunately Ignea's dislike of death lead many to believe he had ulterior motives for joining the army but those rumours were quickly squashed when he proved his prowess on the battlefield despite them being true, now, only Erza Knightwalker: commander of Edolas' second magic war division held suspicion and the two had a violent rivalry with fights often breaking out between them

He had been likened to a demon on the battle field was known with awe and fear and the _fire wraith_ but despite his power and reclusive nature, he inspired loyalty in his men that no other lieutenant could replicate and his men trusted him completely despite many of them having never met him

The boring meeting allowed the white headed lieutenant to think about his time before joining the army; as it had turned out, Neiberosa did know Igneel and had pointed him in his father's counterparts direction, when he had arrived he had gotten more than bargained for

Edo-Igneel had, understandably mistook him for his son at first; them being counterparts after all, but after he had explained his situation to the dragon in human form, the man had not only offered him a place to stay, but to train him an a form of martial arts used by dragon counterparts such as himself

Igneel was a large man, with a similar build to Gildarts with black hair, streaked with brilliant Crimson in the same spiky style he himself had, his eyes were the same charcoal as Natsu's, he was an ex soldier from before magic's outlawing, now a blacksmith and was generally wearing brown overalls caked in soot with a black apron

Igneel told him he had attempted to teach his son in this world the fighting style but the boy was timid and pathetic when he wasn't behind the wheel of a vehicle and that while he was proud of his son, he didn't want the fighting style he had learnt to die with him

So Natsu had spent the better part of a year with his dragon's counterpart, learning the style of the bronze dragon which included not only hand to hand combat, which he excelled at, as he always had, but martial weapons as well, including swords, maces and most importantly Igneel's family heirloom: the dragon's fang staff

Natsu had found himself far better with larger two handed weapons but favoured staffs due to their power of a two handed weapon and speed of a single hander, much to Igneel's delight as again it meant he could pass his extensive knowledge of staff combat and eventually the staff itself

Natsu's natural fire resistance also made him invaluable as a smith and often helped at the forge, building his strength and learning how to repair and improve weapons, as well as, if necessary build them

Natsu had expressed his desire to join the army, to find out if there was a way for him to get back home but hadn't acted on it, instead opting to learn all he could about the land he was in and the skills of bronze dragon

Igneel had fortunately been close friends with the exceed commander Pantherlily who was suspicious of the military's actions concerning Earthland and Extalia and one day when the large exceed had come for repairs on his weapon: buster marm, Igneel had told him of his son's counterpart's plight and with one quick disguise, a new name and history Natsu joined the army under the guise of _Ignea Rosa_

The rest, they say, is history, the two had recently found documents concerning a plan, but the details of which were ambiguous at best, at least, Natsu had found out it was possible to get home, _just not yet._


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

 **Yay! Chapter 10, finally, let's celebrate with a slightly longer chapter and a brand spanking new disclaimer**

 ***clears throat** *** I do not own fairy tail or any of its characters, it is all owned by Hiro Mashima**

 **There, wasn't that nice**

* * *

Lucy was amazed by everything she saw; she had never been to a town as big or as busy as magnolia, she followed Lisanna and Happy in comfortable silence as they led her to a large building at the centre of town

The blonde's excitement grew as she noticed the fairy tail emblem displayed proudly on banners and signs all over the large building, its doors were closed but Lisanna quickly fixed that by violently and loudly kicking them in

Inside was a large two story hall filled with people at tables, talking and drinking despite it being only about an hour after noon, many of the halls occupants had turned to see who had caused the disturbance but called out in friendly greeting upon seeing who it was

"Ho Lisanna! Welcome back! How'd it go?", A plain looking man with sandy blond hair called

"sorry Max, it wasn't him, another dud", Lisanna said sadly before walking to the bar at the far end of the hall, with Lucy in tow who was surprised to hear the string of colourful curses flowing from Max's mouth before he attacked another nondescript member a couple of tables across with a volley of sand

"Should we stop them?", Lucy asked timidly pointing at the two

"Huh? Oh, nah this sorta thing happens all the time", Lisanna explained

"Sooo, who's this?", a soft voice asked from behind the bar

As Lucy turned around to see who had addressed them her jaw dropped, behind the bar was Mirajane Strauss, miss fairy tail, the guilds most popular poster girl and one of the running candidates for the most beautiful woman in Fiore; Lucy was a big fan.

She was wearing a sleeveless, ankle length, maroon dress tied at the back and collar with large pink bows, her long white hair cascaded down her back with two bangs framing her pretty face and a small odd front facing pony tail kept her fringe off her face, her smile was kind and her eyes seemed to sparkle

"Hey sis", Lisanna said nonchalantly as Lucy gawked, looking between them, realising that they were the fairy sisters, Lucy briefly wondered why she had never seen Lisanna in sorcerers weekly but chalked it up to having to compete with her sister

"This is Lucy, she was really eager to join the guild", Lisanna explained to her sister pointing to the still awestruck blond

"So, you want to be a member of fairy tail huh?", Mira said; addressing Lucy. Being addressed by one of the few people she idolised, Lucy almost fainted but she quickly reined in her urge to squeal and gush like a fan girl (with difficulty mind you)

"Yes! I've wanted to join fairy tail for the longest time!", she answered excitedly

As they conversed the brawl behind them had escalated into a mass of flying limbs and magic, Lucy heard a loud shout and Lisanna calmly lent quite quickly to her left and where she had been moments before a large man flew past, despite her dodging, her sister was not so lucky and Mira was hit full on by the man turned projectile

"Elfman incoming", Lisanna chuckled with a smirk looking down at her siblings sprawled out on the floor, Mira pushed the large man off of her with what seemed to only be minor difficulty

"sorry about that, ELFMAN GET UP!", She said calmly to Lucy before screaming at the man still on the floor, At Mira's shout he shot up

"Huh? What? Mira?", He said incoherently looking around before his gaze rested on Lisanna

"Hey sis, your back!", He said jubilantly

"Yup!" Was her simple reply with a wide smile

"How'd it go? Was it him?", Elfman asked; his face becoming serious

"No, it was just some poser", she replied with a small scowl, Elfman opened his mouth to continue but was cut off by a roar of anger

"BRATS! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

All movement in the guild ceased instantly, all insults and words froze in people's throats and each head turned fearfully to the sound of the thundering voice, Lucy let out a small "eep" of fear at what she saw

Before her was a Titan, completely covered by shadow he towered over all of them, if he had been standing straight his head would have touched the ceiling of the second floor and his face was twisted into a scowl of anger as he glared down at the frozen group of brawling guild members

"Oh master, your back?", Mira asked sweetly as she looked up at the towering giant above them, _that's the master!?,_ Lucy thought terrified out of her wits, as she thought that the shadow cloaked colossus began to shrink, becoming smaller and smaller revealing a little old man in a garish outfit and large scruffy white moustache, the man was small, by far the shortest person Lucy had ever seen, he only barely reached her knee. The little old man looked up at her

"A new comer eh?", Lucy who was still in shock could only nod lamely in response

"nice to meet you", the old man bluntly said before jumping up into multiple backflips before solidly colliding with a banister on the second floor, He managed to stop himself from falling and dragged himself up onto the railing

"I'm too old for stunts like that" he muttered although only Lisanna heard it, he then produced a stack of papers seemingly from thin air

"You dumbasses have done it again!", He shouted down at them

"I have been getting complaint after complaint from the council about your behaviour! First off: Gray! The redfly forest job, you completed the job flawlessly. BUT did the _entire_ thing butt naked.", Gray just tch'd in response

"Elfman! You cannot abandon your escort because he insulted your 'manliness'. Cana! You charged your entire alcohol bill from multiple jobs to the council itself"

"They found out huh?", Cana joked

"And even Lisanna, it says here you destroyed a large portion of Hargeon port apprehending a slave trafficker, what happened child?", Makarov asked concerned, Lisanna was usually quite conservative and generally hated to cause harm to anyone or anything

"he was impersonating Natsu", she said in a freezing cold tone rarely heard, Mira and many of the other members gasped in shock and everyone scowled though none were as sharp as the youngest Strauss, even the master frowned in contempt and to be honest it scared Lucy and she wondered who Natsu was to have affected the guild so much

"I hope you gave him what he deserved", the master said with a growl

"But I digress, Alzack! Bisca! Max! Warren! Reedus!", Makarov reprimanded, sighing, a smile returning to his face

"The council want you lot to tone it down, to keep destruction to a minimum, but you know what I say!", He papers in the masters hand spontaneously caught fire and he threw them down to the crowd below

"TO HELL WITH THE COUNCIL!", Makarov roared to which the guild responded with one of their own

"LISTEN UP! The power to overcome reason is born in reason itself, magic is no miracle, you need to grow in your magic and to grow you need to learn and to learn you need to experience, those fools in the council with their rules prevent you from experiencing to world to its fullest, FORGET THE COUNCIL! IF YOU FEAR THOSE BIGGOTS WITH THEIR RULES AND REGULATIONS YOU WILL NEVER GROW! DO WHAT YOU THINK IS RIGHT! THAT IS THE WAY OF FAIRY TAIL!"

The guild went into an uproar and Lucy grinned in pure excitement, she was going to enjoy it here.

* * *

"Thank god that's over", Hughes; the commander of the third royal war division, an easy going man who was overly easy to impress or astound despite his position fighting those skilled in the magic arts

He was reasonably tall, maybe a half a head above Natsu with purple hair accented with one thick lock of white hair falling on the right side of his face, his other defining feature were his strangely shaped eyebrows, they naturally grow to look remarkably like clock hands or arrow heads

"Don't I know it", Natsu replied from behind his disguised cowl, he got on rather well with Hughes and Coco despite his rivalry with Erza and… well… Sugarboy just creeped them all out

"So Ignea when are you gunna start on that mission?", Hughes asked, only receiving a confused look from white clad companion, he laughed

"Amazing! You really weren't listening were you!? Hah!"

"Oh just spit it out Hughes, it really isn't that surprising", Ignea replied with a scowl but if you looked closely you would notice that the boys ears had turned an interesting shade of red

"Intel discovered the hideout of Sabertooth, the King's sending you to wipe them out, although he did say to keep some alive for questioning", Coco supplied

Coco was a small girl, but she was fast, her long brown hair, tied in a ponytail was almost constantly covered by strange green head gear giving the impression of large floppy ears, she wore a skin tight blue body suit covered by a yellow calf length dress, she also never wore shoes of any kind, preferring to go barefoot

She acted as messenger in the court, running around the castle delivering news to where it needed to be, she was a kind hearted girl who dislikes violence in any form despite often enjoying the company of the four strongest people in the country and Ignea. The white haired lieutenant's stare hardened and his eyebrows furrowed in anger

"So Ignea when will you be leaving?", Hughes asked again suggestively

"Immediately!", Ignea spat before tuning on his heel and storming off

"Hey Hughes. Why does Ignea hate Sabertooth so much? He normally seems so nice but whenever someone mentions that guild he gets all scary and angry", Coco asked her companion

"Wow! Really? You didn't hear about it!?", Hughes asked once again easily surprised

"No I didn't, tell me about it!", Coco exclaimed, excited to be hearing a new story

"Well I think it happened about six months ago, about a month after Ignea became Pantherlily's lieutenant…"

-Flashback-

"Listen _Ignea…_ " Pantherlily explained

"… All you need to do is stand watch, your job is to keep the wild life and possibly bandits away from this training camp, you're only here for security, not to show off or, heaven forbid, instruct! Got it!"

"Yea, yea Pantherlily I know, you've explained this to me like a hundred times, I know! And you have nothing to worry about, my strength is already well renown around the county and you're the famous first commander, you'd have to be stupid to attack with both of us here", Natsu replied confidently

Pantherlily sighed, he knew Natsu was right but couldn't shake the feeling something bad was going to happen

"You're right...What are doing just standing there!? Get back to your post lieutenant!", Pantherlily shouted at him, Natsu grinned and pulled his arm up for a salute

"Aye sir!", He said in a slightly mocking tone before running off

The large exceed sighed again then turned and strode off to teach a group of budding young recruits

As night fell a message came in for Pantherlily from the Capitol and he was pulled away leaving Natsu in disguise to defend the camp with a team of five others, more than enough to keep the animals roaming Edolas away or to deter any bandits

Natsu had never previously met any of the other security detail with him but found them to be pleasant enough company, he even played cards with a couple of them, an Edolas game called kaluki

He knew in terms of skill he outclassed all of them but they were all competent people, capable of combat, unlike many of the recruits present

The sun had set a couple of hours ago and Natsu had just finished his rounds of the camp site and was heading to his tent to sleep when he caught a peculiar scent floating on the west blowing wind, well not peculiar per say, but unfamiliar, he judged there to be about six of them, but they were a way off so he didn't think twice about it

He headed back to the security tent to wake up whoever was next on rounds, he walked for about five minutes through the field the trainees were camped in but just before he could open the flap on the security one, it exploded

Natsu was blown back, hitting his head against a rock, rendering him unconscious as the tent burned in a magnificent bonfire, lighting up the night as six figures ran down the hill towards the encampment

Natsu was awoken in the early morning by Pantherlily violently shaking him, the flames that had undoubtedly killed the other five security officers hadn't touched Natsu leaving only his clothes singed around the edges

Pantherlily was saying something but Natsu couldn't hear him "…as attacked…" He heard the large commander say

 _An attack!,_ Natsu thought with a start, jumping up to his feet he saw the smouldering remains of the large tent he had shared with five others, the smell of burning flesh was sickening for Natsu's hypersensitive nose, he stared at it for many seconds before a slight breeze blew something at the boy's feet

Natsu with a shocked expression bent down and picked it up, it was the six of clubs, a card, black around the edges from being in the fire, he stared at the card, something that would hold memory's for the dragon slayer for years to come, as his expression turned from shocked to grief stricken

A single tear fell as he turned to look down at the field but once he did he wished he hadn't, Natsu fell to knees; his legs no longer being able to support his weight and broke down in tears

Before him lay a battle field, but no battle took place there, no instead it was a massacre, the young recruits lay in pools of their own blood which slowly seeped into the hard ground, many of the tents were smouldering in a similar fashion to his own, it seems that only a few had survived and they were crying over the corpses of their fallen comrades and friends

 _"GODDAMMIT!",_ Natsu roared raising both his fists and slamming them into the ground, causing cracks to spider web along the hard earth as he cried onto his clenched fists with a feral look of grief on his face

 _"_ Who did this!?", Natsu gasped out

"Who would do _this!?_ ", He shouted gesturing to the field of dead men and women, none older than twenty

"The attackers targeted the barrack tents and raided each personal tent, they stole almost every weapon, magical or not they could get their hands on", Pantherlily said calmly, Natsu veered round to stare at Pantherlily

"They did _this_ for weapons?", he asked incredulously

 _"_ It was an honourless attack, they defeated all those who could defend themselves in one blow before falling on the defenceless, those who survived only did so by playing dead this was more than a scavenging run, this was killing the adversary before they became the adversary", Pantherlily explained with his usual impassive stare

"But who did it!?", Natsu demanded

"We don't…", Pantherlily started but was cut off

"Sir! We have found a body belonging to someone not from the camp!", one of the men that had accompanied Pantherlily to the Capitol reported professionally despite the horrors before him, the large exceed stood up sharply

"show us!", He commanded, his subordinate nodded and briskly walked off with commander and lieutenant in tow, the body them man led them to was as clad completely in black, reminding Natsu in his delirious state of a ninja, he had a slice running from his left shoulder to his mid chest, deep enough to be fatal but very obviously a lucky hit most likely delivered by the nearby recruit who's dead hands clutched a large pole arm

Pantherlily pulled off the face cover revealing a pained look of shock from the fallen adversary; he had straight blond hair and brown eyes, dulled and soulless

"He looks familiar", Pantherlily said, then reached over to the man's right shoulder and ripped off the sleeve revealing for all to see…

-Flashback end-

"Revealing what Hughes!?", Coco asked frustrated that Hughes had stopped

"Amazing! You really haven't worked it out!?", He asked unsurprisingly surprised

"No Hughes! Just tell me!", Coco shouted

"Revealing the guild mark of Sabertooth!", Hughes finished with a flourish

"Oh", Coco said felling a little stupid for forgetting the reason she asked Hughes to tell that story in the first place

"That's horrible, no wonder Ignea doesn't like them at all", Coco commented looking in the direction the first division lieutenant stormed off minutes ago

* * *

"Hey Lisanna, look!", Lucy exclaimed raising her right hand to show the pink guild mark Mira had just imprinted on the back of it

"Yea, that's cool Lucy", Lisanna said dismissively with a request in her hand

"Is my daddy back yet?", A small boy with tears in his eyes asked the master who was sitting up on the bar, catching the attention of both Lisanna and Lucy, the master sighed in frustration

"No Romeo, Macao isn't back yet, he's a Mage you should trust that he can handle such a simple job"

"Hey Lis, is that the Everlu job?", A short girl blue haired girl asked the secret snow dragon slayer

"Huh? Yea Levy it is", she responded

"Aww I wanted to do that one", Levy pouted and folded her arms

"He said he'd be back in three days at most", the small boy sniffled

"Yea so?", Makarov began but was again cut off

"It's been a week!", Romeo yelled, the master sighed again

"Listen kid, your fathers a Mage, and a dang good one at that, he's fine, in fact he probably just got caught in that freak snow storm that's hit mount hakobe…". He started but alas it wasn't to be

"You Meany!", Romeo yelled as he jumped up and punched the old man in the face, effectively shutting him up then run away crying

"A little harsh isn't it?", Lucy asked Mira over the bar

"yea probably, that's just the way things work in the world of mages, in all honesty master is worried about Macau as well but can't really do anything about it", the white haired barkeep replied

"Take it", Lisanna said thrusting the job request to a surprised Levy

"Thanks! Do you not want it?", the little bluenette asked

"Something came up", Lisanna replied with a shadow over her eyes before walking swiftly away

"Oh", was Levy's understanding reply

Lisanna made her way out of the guild after Romeo's retreating form and Levy, Jet and Droy made their way to Mira to check in the job

"Hey Mira", Levy greeted warmly

"Hi Levy, you taking this job?", Mira asked

"You betchya! Me and team shadow gear!", the short script mage said in high spirit as she handed the request over to Mira

"The Everlu job huh? Figures you would take any job involving books, hey it says here the target is looking for a blond maid, I know why don't you take Lucy here, do an infiltration!", Mira exclaimed pointing at the blond seated across from her

"Y'know Mira, that's a great idea!", She exclaimed before turning to Lucy

"Hi I'm Levy a solid script mage!", she enthusiastically said putting out her hand to shake

"Hey, the name's Lucy, I'm a celestial spirit mage, nice to meet you", Lucy said shaking the blue haired girl's hand

"So Lucy how'd you like to do this job with us?", Levy asked with a disarming smile

"I'd love to!" Lucy replied with a smile of her own

 **You are now, at the bottom of the page.**

 **This story is turning out way darker that I originally intended but still, character development!**

 **A quick spoiler warning for my future plans so just ignore any text below this if you want a surprise**

 **No? Well I'm planning to make Lucy's celestial spirits a little less… Well… Lame, don't get me wrong their cool in all but you have admit Cancer and Sagittarius as well as to an extent Gemini could do with sprucing up a bit, so what I want is for you lot to give me ideas on which spirits I should change and how (especially Cancer and Sagittarius).**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

 **Blah Blah disclaimer, Blah Blah chapter 1. Oh wait! We have a new one now! If you want a disclaimer they're on either chapter 1 or 10**

* * *

Lucy, accompanied by team shadow gear departed immediately and made their way to the client's house by carriage, Lucy and Levy hit it off straight away over their shared love of literature

Lucy didn't really find out much about their companions beyond that Jet used speed magic and Droy used a form of plant magic, mainly because she was too engrossed talking to Levy and the two seemed creepily content to just listen to them talk

Eventually their conversation strayed from books and the wonderful world of literature and onto the guild and its characters, Lucy discovered the names of anyone who was anyone within the main guild and where the celestial spirit mage fit in among them

It turned out that despite her short stature, Levy was nineteen going on twenty in a couple of months; almost a year and a half older than Lucy, making her one of the oldest in the 'fourth generation' which now included Lucy

The generations, Levy explained, are those of the guild, while they are on their third master (a major accomplishment, most guilds rarely survive to their second master), they have had four generation of guild members; one for first master Mavis, one for second master Purehito and third master Makarov has overseen one and a half, so they're on the fourth generation

"So we're the fourth generation? What would it take to start another generation?", Lucy asked the knowledgeable blue haired girl

"I … Uh … Don't actually know … That's a good question. I guess it just sorta happens", Levy said shrugging

"So who's the youngest in this generation?", Lucy asked, Levy lent on her hand with it planted under her chin and though for a second while the carriage they were in trundled happily along

"It's either Lisanna or you", the bluenette said after a moment or two

"Me!?", Lucy asked surprised

"When's Lisanna's birthday?", the blond continued

"that's the problem, we don't know, whenever we ask her she says she doesn't remember and neither Mira or Elfman have any idea when it is either, we always just used to celebrate her's and Natsu's birthday on May 15th; the day Happy hatched", Levy explained

"Hey, I've heard that name around since I've joined and Lisanna always gets kinda scary whenever someone mentions them, so if you don't mind me asking … Who is Natsu?", Lucy asked innocently

"Oh…", Levy breathed and both Jet and Droy visibly flinched

"What!?", Lucy asked cautiously, surprised by the extent of their reaction

"Well I suppose you do deserve to know if you're going to a part of fairy tail", Levy began with a melancholy expression

* * *

Far away on mount Hakobe a white haired girl exited a small Ox drawn carriage, "Natsu had been part of the guild for about nine years, he was well loved…", the girl clothed in a red and orange dress briskly began walking up the small mountain path

The only piece of clothing that seemed suited to the climate she inhabited was a white scale patterned muffler tied around her neck, flapping in the wind,"… He was a dragon slayer; a rare form of magic that allowed the Mage using to turn parts of their body into that of a dragons either temporarily or otherwise, allowing for devastating attacks and enhanced senses…", the girl once she was alone quickly and deeply inhaled and the thick snow blowing down around her began to gravitate to her mouth as she inhaled it

The girl, being completely unaffected by the storm or the cold forged on, "… When he first joined the guild, he was distant and standoffish, he viewed the guild as a battleground, as nothing more than a way to get stronger…", she sensed a cave further ahead and began making her way towards it

"… But Lisanna changed that, she taught him the values of friendship and of family, the two were basically joint at the hip from when they worked together to raise happy from his egg…" inside the cave appeared to be empty but her nose told her contrary

She continued into the cave, and as it began to get dark her brilliant sky blue eyes changed into ones that looked like they belonged on an owl, or a bat, "...Natsu and Lisanna were best friends but we all anticipated it to be more, hell, Cana even had bets up to see how long it would take for them to hook up…"

In the cave the girl could smell as well as see a fairly large Vulcan hunched over a pile of shiny objects Vulcans are prone to hoard,"…it was obvious they had it bad for each other, they were almost as bad as Alzack and Bisca are now…", knowing that Vulcans possessed limited intelligence she called out to it

When the beast only responded in pervy comments and lewd suggestions, even more over the top for a normal Vulcan, she understood what had happened, "…but one day about a year and a half ago, Mira took her siblings along with Natsu on a S class mission, the job was to take down a monster called _the Beast_ …"

She demanded that the monster relinquish her guild mate but it only refused and lunged in a stupidly desperate attempt to grab her breasts, "… During the mission something went wrong, Elfman was absorbed by the Beast, making it stronger, Mira passed out from exhaustion leaving only a flagging Natsu and Lisanna…"

The White haired girl simply sidestepped the beast and planted a high heeled foot, enhanced with a small blizzard of snow swirling around it, firmly and violently into the Vulcans back, blasting it off into the caverns opposite wall,"… From what Lisanna tells us, she tried to reason with the Beast, believing that Elfman was still inside and could somehow take back control…"

"... But that, understandably, didn't work and the monster swung a gigantic fist down at Lisanna, one that might have potentially killed her…", the Vulcan shakily got up on its feet with a grimace of part pain, part anger, it turned only to be met with a swirling vortex of snow originating from the White haired girls mouth engulfing him

"… But … N-Natsu s-s-somehow took the h-hit…", upside down, out cold was no longer a common mountain Vulcan but the snow dragons slayer's guild mate: Macao, she used her magic to give the man enough energy to wake up and she slung him around her shoulder and led him down off the mountain

"... A-a-and he-he died!" Levy choked out before breaking down sobbing, "Oh…" Lucy said shocked and inexplicably saddened at the fact that someone so close to everyone in the guild and specifically Lisanna was dead

"Well she said he just disappeared" Droy said while Jet comforted the crying Levy "and she goes looking for him whenever there's a rumour of him or dragons" he continued, "We try to hold on to the belief that he's still alive but…" Jet said with and arm around Levy, "I-It's been so long" the blue haired girl finished, slipping out of Jets grip

"Wow … I had no idea" the blond whispered

* * *

In the city of magnolia a young dark haired boy was sitting crying in a local park, his father was missing and there was nothing that mean old man at fairy tail could do about it, just as he had thought this he heard a soft voice call out to him, looking up he saw Lisanna and next to her was his father

He was bandaged an leaving heavily to his right side but he was alive and Romeo was overjoyed, the small boy ran and tackled his father in a desperate hug, his father laughed at his sons antics to cover the pain in his chest he was feeling, _since when could Lisanna hit so hard?_

Lisanna smiled a small soft smile, turned and walked away, smelling tears of joy and hearing the laughter of a man with something to love as she retreated from the reunited family.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

 **disclaimer, blah blah, you know the drill**

* * *

"Well here you are folks; the address you requested", the carriage driver told the now silent fairy tail mages over his shoulder, Jet and Droy simply exited the carriage silently, Lucy smiled at the man and levy thanked and payed him

"Well this is the clients house, let's go", levy said leading the other three to the front door, they only had to wait a second after knocking before it was answers by a woman in a stripped dress who lead them to a lavish living room and a man wearing a smart suit

"Welcome, my name is Kaby Melon and this is my wife", the man said introducing himself and the woman who brought them here

"Nice to meet you mister Melon, we are the fairy tail mages who accepted your job", levy said politely, _odd, that name … Melon, where have I heard that before?,_ Levy pondered

"Honestly I'm surprised that mages from such a renown guild like fairy tail would accept this job and your all quite young, are you one of its famous teams?", Kaby Melon asked

"Uhh, yes we are, the three of us are team show gear and this is Lucy's first proper mission so where helping her out.", Levy once again answered having been broken out of her internal musing

"Interesting. Well I think that's enough of the pleasantries", Kaby started leaning forward

"Let's get down to business, I need to you find the one and only copy of the book 'day break' that Everlu owns … And _Destroy_ it!", He said in all seriousness

"So we don't have to steal it?", Droy asked

"Well I am asking you to destroy something in someone else's possession, so that's basically theft", Kaby explained

"This must mean a lot to you to be worth 20000 jewels", Lucy said in a subtle effort to convince the others

"20000? You mean you don't know?", Kaby asked with a surprised look

"Know what?!", Jet asked

"I raised the reward to 2 million, I just can't stand that book's continued existence", the fairy tail mages jaws dropped and any reluctance was swept away instantly. Droy shot up from his seat

"Don't worry Mr Melon that book will be destroyed by the end of the day!", He exclaimed before rushing out of the house in excitement, Jet quickly followed calling over his shoulder that there was nothing to worry about

"Sorry about that, they're just a bit excited, but rest assured we will destroy that book as soon as possible", Levy said before sedately following her teammates with Lucy

"Honey, are you sure we can trust those kids with this job? That other guild failed just last week, Everlu probably just saw it as a failed robbery and has almost definitely tightened security since", Miss Melon asked Kaby

"I know dear…", Kaby said putting his head in his hands

"I just can't abide that book's existence any longer"

* * *

"So how do we want to do this job?", Jet asked

"How about we just destroy the mansion?". Droy inquired

"No! Do you want us to go to jail!?", Lucy exclaimed

"How about we go with Mira's idea and do an infiltration? There are posters around town saying that Everlu is looking for a blond maid, so, we get Lucy a maid and…", Levy said, inviting her companions to continue

"She serves us food while we think of an idea?", Droy asked dumbly while Jet nodded in agreement

"No you idiots! I'll disguise myself as a maid and find and destroy the book without Everlu being any the wiser!", Lucy screamed in exasperation. Both Jet and Droy's mouths formed into an O then they turned to Levy

"That's genius! You're so smart Levy! That's why you're the boss!", they both exclaimed while Lucy failed to resist the urge to face palm

* * *

Lucy now outfitted in a flattering maid uniform stood in front of the Everlu estate gates looking full of her self _man! I look good in anything, no one could resist me with this on!,_ She thought, team show gear stood a little ways of obscured by the tree line

"Excuse me.", she called in her cutest voice

"I'm here for the maid position!", She called in a slightly louder voice still laced with her 'feminine charm', after almost two minutes with no answer she dropped all pretences and banged her fists on he gate angrily

"Hey! Is there even anyone here!", She yelled

As soon as she finished her rant the ground to her right began to rumble and shake, Lucy jumped back in surprise As a large woman with pink hair exploded from the rumbling earth, the woman had pink hair and was wearing a maid outfit similar to her own, the best way to describe this woman was to say she looked like a gorilla

"A maid applicant?", the gorilla woman growled in a very masculine voice

"y-yes", Lucy squeaked out in fright reaching for her key pouch, she then jumped again as another person exploded from the earth

This time a man, he was short in stature but large around the middle, he had small beady eyes, an over pronounced nose with a odd style of moustache that seemed to be growing out of his nose and a too large grin all in all he looked remarkably like an egg in a suit with a disgusting face drawn on and a combover

"Another applicant?", the man asked the gorilla who just nodded

"Let me see…", the man said before eyeing Lucy up, _this is Everlu!? Ugh he's giving me goosebumps, blegh, suck it up Lucy_

"Nice to meet you", she said in the cutesie voice once again

Everlu simply turned swiftly on his heel

"Nope! Go home ugly.", He said coldly, Lucy's jaw dropped for the second time that day

"ug-", she stuttered before four more people burst from the ground

"Of course for someone as great as me only the most beautiful will do", Everlu said in a snobbish tone gesturing to the four girls who had appeared

All four were wearing maid outfits like the gorilla and I express no desire to describe them, the nicest thing that they could be called would be the freak show, they were so aesthetically displeasing to view that the hiding team shadow gear almost screamed upon seeing them.

* * *

"Well that didn't go quite as planned", Levy said after the four of them regrouped, Droy was trying to console the traumatised blonde who was incoherently babbling about ugliness

"I'll say! Lucy you were useless!", Jet exclaimed, breaking her out of her stupor

"It's not my fault that he has a retarded view of beauty!", She rebuked

"well it looks like it's time for plan B", Droy said

"Plan B?", Was Lucy's question

"We break in!", Jet finished

Now on the roof of the illustrious mansion Lucy looked back at the beanstalk that Droy had grown for them to get up

"Don't you think that they might notice that?", she asked pointing at the large plant

"Hmm? Oh that", Droy said absent minded lay before snapping his fingers making the stalk instantly turn orange and decay to nothing

" _Cool_ ", Lucy breathed quietly impressed

"well let's go, there any security on the skylight Jet?", Levy asked

"Nothing conventional he probably has no idea were coming", the speed mage responded

" _Solid script: Heat"_

Levy whispered quickly melting the glass and allowing the four of them to enter, what they didn't know is that duke Everlu had a state of the art surveillance lacrima system set up around his estate and had witnessed their entire conversation

"More mages hmm?", Everlu said to a couple of men shrouded in shadows

* * *

"Lieutenant Ignea, we have confirmed the location of the Sabertooth guild hall and have all exits covered, our inside source tells us that their teleporter has run out of charges and they have contacted fairy tail for more, they will be stranded with no chance of reinforcements for approximately three days", a messenger told the disguised Natsu

"Thank you, dismissed", Natsu told the man with a salute before turning to the room of strategists behind him

"What do you recommend we do?", He asked the assembled thinkers who had been talking among themselves

"We would suggest that you attack fast and strong at the front, letting them believe that they could escape before springing an ambush as they try to escape"

"Alright, send the order out: I will lead battalions one and two in the LAW formation while battalions three to six will spread about the forest waiting in ambush, the scout battalions will keep eyes on the escaping guild members and coordinate the waiting battalions", Natsu said with authority to another waiting scout

"Understood sir! But if I may? Will the first two battalions be enough to lead a full frontal attack?", the scout asked

"Don't worry about it, I will probably be enough to lead the attack, at the first sign of danger those gutless cowards will flee", and with that the scout nodded and ran off to relay orders

* * *

The four mages tiptoed out of the attic room stealthily

"Jet, go find the library", Levy quietly commanded to her red headed companion who then used his super speed to zoom down the corridor, opening and closing every door before blurring off down the stairs to check the foyer, When he reappeared to Lucy it looked like simply appeared in the same position he had left in

"The library is the fourth door along from here", he whispered to them and they began to make their way slowly along

Just after they had passed the third door Lucy felt the ground beneath her rumbling only an instant before the Gorilla and the freak show squad appeared in their path

"INTRUDERS DETECTED!", the pink haired gorilla woman yelled, initiation an attack

The four ugly maids, wielding spears leapt forward screaming obscenities

"ROWAN FIST!"

Droy threw out his hand, his palm facing their attackers; a flurry of seeds flew from his hand that grew into large fists made of a hard wood stopped the pathetic attack cold, with her comrades out of commission, the Gorilla charged them

"SKYHORN KICK!"

Jet rushed forward as a blur and kicked the pink haired maid clear under the chin, sending her flying over the banister and crashing into the ground floor

The four of them then quickly rushed into the library, shut and locked the door

"Wow this place is huge! How are we supposed to find one book in all of this?!", Lucy exclaimed, she had only ever seen one library bigger than this and it had been nearly impossible to find anything in there

"Easy. It's a library so it will sorted by either title or author", Levy said

"Well I hope it's by title, the client didn't tell us who wrote It.", Droy pointed out

"Oh yea… Whelp! Let's just get looking", Levy said walking towards the nearest bookshelf

* * *

The attack had gone smoothly for the most part, Natsu with his most trusted men had stormed the gates, the surprised Sabertooth members barely knew what hit them, the smashed through the front gates, immediately capturing the members closest leaving them to flail in nets, they then spread out capturing and knocking out members

The members of the first and second battalions chased the dark mages out into the forests where they were promptly captured while Ignea himself used searched the hall for hiding members, using his nose he found a hidden court yard housing what appeared to be the important members of the guild

Rage built up in Natsu, _these cowards hid here while their comrades distracted my force getting captured, even possibly killed! They don't even care!,_ He pulled the Dragon's Fang off of his back

Brandishing the staff in one hand he pointed it silently at the assembled guild members in a challenge, in response the men and women cowered in fear until three children stepped forward

The oldest was a girl that looked to be about fifteen with black hair and a harsh face, the other two were young boys of about eleven or twelve, they had short spiky blond hair and long straight black hair respectively

As they stepped forward he noticed their weapons, the girl was wielding a pair of battle gauntlets Natsu recognised to have been stolen in the attack on the training camp, while being angered further at being reminded of that incident he was impressed, those gauntlets were as selective as his staff

The blond boy wielded a rare light sword and the raven haired boy wielded a pair of sai that appeared to be cloaked in darkness

"Are you really so low as to let children fight me?", Natsu asked the five or so cowering men

"DON'T LOOK DOWN ON US!", the sai holder screamed in defiant rage

"We are stronger than we look", the blond said quietly

"We will defeat you fair and square so we can go back to being a guild again", the girl said defiantly

"Minerva don't", a thin sickly bald man Natsu knew to be Jiemma the guild's master squeaked out

"Let Sting and Rouge fight, we need to get out of here…", He stopped shrinking away from the glares of both Natsu and his daughter

"No father! I will fight and we will win, this is a matter of honour!", she said loudly

"You heard the lady", the boy named Sting whispered

"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE US!", the raven haired boy called Rouge yelled

Natsu smiled even though you could only see it in his eyes thanks to the cowl

"No. I don't think I will.", He said before sinking into a stance, the children's eyes shone with the promise of a challenge as they did they did the same

* * *

After about the minutes of searching Jet called out that he had found it

"Pass it here and I'll burn it", Levy said, as Jet passed the book the the little bluenette Lucy spied something on the cover

"Wait. What does that say?", she asked pointing at the book, levy with confused face pulled up the book to look at its cover

"Daybreak, by Kemu Zaelon! Holy crap! I've never heard of this it must be unpublished!"

"What?", Jet and Droy asked in complete unison

"What do you mean what!?", Lucy exclaimed

"Kemu Zaelon is one the greatest authors to ever live!", She continued

"So? Let's destroy it…", Jet said reaching again for the book

"Noooooo", both girls screeched jumping away

"It would be a crime against literature to only let that disgusting duke ever read this book", Levy exclaimed passionately

"Yea! Let's just tell Kaby we destroyed the book but instead keep it!", Lucy proposed

"Because… That really would be stealing, from two people…", Droy said as if he was talking to a small child

"Fine but at least let me and Levy read it first", Lucy argued and Levy simply nodded before squatting down and began to read. Again they briefly felt the ground rumble as duke Everlu burst from the ground

"Oh ho ho, so that's what all these thieves have been looking for, I'm glad I let you four run loose", the man said in a snobbish tone

The four in question simply looked at the man in confusion _he planned this?,_ they all thought, well all but Levy who had at this point become totally engrossed in the book

"Although I don't know why you would want it, it's not very good", the duke continued

"Does that mean we can have it?!", Lucy asked hopefully

"No! Of course not! It's my possession and anything in my possession is naturally worth more that all of you worthless fools put together!", He yelled indignantly

"Well I think I've discussed enough with you riffraff…", the man said with his snobbish tone returning

On cue a pair of bookcases to the mage's left began to split and open inwards, the revealed unlit corridor was blocked by a pair of men, both larger than the fairy tail wizards although one much more than the other

The shorter of the two was a mostly bald his only hair being a long black braided ponytail tied in a white bow, he had a serious look with red tattoos at the four points of the compass on his face, he was wearing a white cloak with dark green detailing and straight black trousers, he also carried on his back what appeared to be a very large frying pan

The second man was almost three heads taller than the first and his height was only accented by his wild black hair which pointed outwards in four directions, the massive man's face betrayed little intelligence and his clothes were relatively simple, he wore a dark blue jacket with yellow accenting and light blue jeans, his hair was also held away from his face by a orange bandanna

The two of them also had armbands on which detailed a stylised wolf head with an S running through it

"They're from the southern wolves!", Droy exclaimed soon seeing the armbands

"Indeed. We are the vanish brothers, the esteemed mage hunters of the bounty hunter guild southern wolves", the shorter one introduced in a clam collected voice

"Stop with the chitchat! Kill them and get me my book back!", Everlu demanded angrily

"There's something about this book that doesn't add up…", levy mumbled

"Jet! Droy! Distract them while I finish reading, I think this book has a secret to tell!", She called to her teammates as she ran out of the room

"Lucy! Go with her! Protect her, she can handle herself but with her nose in a book, she's vulnerable!", Droy called over his shoulder as he and Jet stared the vanish brothers down, Lucy simply nodded with a determined look and pursued her blue haired friend

"A secret?", Everlu said absentmindedly

"Could that godforsaken author have hidden something from me!? The great duke Everlu!? But what could it be? Perhaps it's the location of his great fortune!", Everlu convinced himself with dollar signs in his eyes

"Vanish brothers! Deal with these two, I'll handle the uglies!", the duke called before diving back into the floor in pursuit of the girls


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

 **It seems lucky thirteen is a thing. Look and enjoy all these words! So many…**

 **Who honestly cares about disclaimers? Lawyers? The hell are those!? Tell them to go to chapter one or ten.**

* * *

Unsurprisingly, the raven haired child attacked first, screaming obscenities he rushed the prepared Natsu and immediately stabbed at the taller boy's torso, Natsu neatly sidestepped the attack and swung his staff round, Rouge blocked with his other sai but the power behind the staff forced him back

It was then that Minerva attacked, recognising that holding back would only end with them captured or even dead she charged a ball of greenish energy between her outstretched hands, once charged she drew her hands above her head

"VOID BLAST!"

She flung the fluctuating orb at the disguised dragon slayer in a high arc while he seemed to be unawares, blocking Rouge's attacks but not fighting back, despite many opportunities to do so

Unfortunately for Minerva, Natsu had both sensed the gathering of magic energy and smelt the buildup of the orb so as soon as it was within about two feet of him he spun on his heel and thrust the end of his staff into the attack

The smirk that had made itself present on Minerva's face was quickly replaced by a look of shock as instead of exploding like it should have the attack seemed to solidify in a way she could never get it to do and Natsu, holding in one hand the other end of his staff flung his whole body round with the fang following, clothes lining Rouge and making the end -with Minerva's attack still trapped there- collide with Sting who had attempted to sneak up on him

The magic ball then exploded as it should have and Sting was flung back, where he collided with Minerva and then the two of them were sent careening into a wall and despite the loud thud Natsu knew the two of them were fine beyond a couple of bruises

As the three children got up shakily off the floor and their legs got some strength back in them, they shared a look and at once rushed Natsu from three directions and as one struck…

* * *

Jet, who had never really been one for patience attacked first, he rushed the larger of the two men, figuring him to be far two slow to even consider dodging, what he didn't take into consideration however was the speed of the older brother

The smaller man swiftly pulled the frying pan from his back and swung it round into Jet's path; the collision sounded remarkably like the sounding of a gong and as such seemed to signal the beginning of the fight

The larger vanish brother leapt over his brother who was steadily fending off the dazed Jet's sloppy attacks and launched himself at Droy; Droy in retaliation threw his hands out, palms facing his feet

"BRAMBLE WALL!"

The large man managed to stop short of the spiked bushes that burst from the floor, after a quick scan over the obstacle the vanish brother simply began to tear at the wall, ignoring the small scratches sustained

At the other end of the room, Jet had regained his balance and was literally running circles around the older vanish brother but despite his best efforts he could not land a hit, the thin man's odd weapon and his incredible skill rendered any attempt at hand to hand combat suicide

"PRESSURE CANNON"

Throwing his hands forward Jet created a blast of compressed air that hurtled towards the unsuspecting vanish brother, the man was thrown off balance and Jet used his magical speed to rush in and landed a swift punch to the face, then one to the ribs and a low sweep that floored the man all in the space of a second

The younger vanish brother broke through the wall of sharp bushes only to be met with a hard wood fist to his gut, taking a retreating step back the vanish brother saw that Droy had covered himself in an armour that looked to be made out of trees

"My iron wood armour, you like it?" Droy asked condescendingly, receiving a grunt in response only for the larger man to suddenly rush forward and shoulder tackle him to the ground, repositioning himself to pin Droy down by sitting on his chest the man proceeded to pummel the wooden casing protecting the mage

All too quickly Droy heard cracks developing along his armour's surface and threw his right arm out; pressing a now uncovered palm to the floor he summoned a log of wood that collided with the large man

Seeing the attack coming the vanish brother had time to defend somewhat but the log colliding with his hastily crossed arms still threw him off his captive and he slid across the room

The older brother having since regained his footing was steadily beating Jet off with the considerably greater reach of his weapon, despite Jet's advantage in speed his accuracy still left a lot to be desired and the thin man was finding it simple to dodge the speed mage's attacks

Recognising that the fight was going nowhere Jet halted his movements and threw his hands out towards his opponent

"PRESSURE CANNON"

Once again the compressed air rocketed towards the vanish brother but this time he was prepared, "not this time!" He called and repositioned the cooking end of the frying pan into the blast's path, upon the connection of the two the compressed air seemed to disperse along the surface of the pan. The man then swung the weapon around his body so he was holding it behind him and the cooking face was directly at his side

"PRESSURE COOKING!"

A blast of compressed air twice as big as Jet's pressure cannon shot at the red headed wizard, despite his increased speed the unexpectedness of the attack threw Jet off and he was hit, flying backwards across the room just as the other brother slid past him, who then rose to stand next to his brother

* * *

Levy and Lucy had retreated to a tunnel like sub basement that Lucy had discovered, they both recognised it lead directly into the local towns sewer system, Levy was sitting against the wall off the tunnel with a blue pair of gale force glasses perched on her nose as she calmly blitzed through the book on her lap

Lucy however was high strung, expecting at any moment an attack from Everlu or his two mage hunting cronies, she had in her hand the key of Cancer in preparation taking into account the relatively tight space they were in

Feeling the ground below her quake Lucy quickly launched herself to the left just as Everlu launched himself from the earth where she had been standing

"ho ho my dear, I'm quite impressed, not very often can people dodge my diving magic.", He praised before his face twisted into a sneer as he noticed Levy who hadn't even reacted to his entrance

"There's my precious possession, I'll just deal with you two ugly thieves myself but I suppose not before you tell me the location of that good for nothing's secret fortune!", He yelled as he leapt at Lucy, she ducked to the side and kicked Everlu into the sewer water, then drew her hand up and, with key still in hold, swung it down

"OPEN; GATE OF THE GIANT CRAB! CANCER, BATTLE FORM"

A white glowing silhouette appeared before Lucy and as it subsided the appearance of the summoned spirit was revealed, Cancer was a tall spirit with orange tinted skin, his hair was black with thin streaks of red was mostly concealed under a red samurai helmet emblazoned with a crab pointing it's pincers into the air, his eyes were also concealed behind green tinted lenses that came off the helmet

His clothing looked like simplistic samurai armour, only the essentials were still there, the chestplate was stripped orange and blue, the trousers were a solid orange, the covering on each arm looked like six crab legs had wrapped themselves around his arms and a red fabric spread between them

But the most fearsome thing were his weapons, he wielded a pair of large blades, each easily as tall as himself and as wide as board they were triangularly prismatic, starting off at a wicked point and gradually widening to a edge about 5cm long, the blades curved slightly away from the edge, their handles which were similar to the circular handles of scissors looked to be stylised as crabs

But most odd of all was what looked to be a pivot joint on the right blade and on the left a hole in exactly the same place

"you summoned me? –ebi.", He said in a smooth voice, Everlu shot out of the water looking absolutely livid

"a celestial spirit eh!? No matter, if I deal with you the pesky thing will simply disappear!", He screamed

"Cancer! I need you to subdue this man!", Lucy said as Cancer blocked the duke's lunge with the flat of one of his blades

"Can do. -ebi", he threw Everlu into a nearby wall and in one swift motion positioned the hole on his left blade ofer the pivot point on his right, with a snap the two blades joined with the blunt edges facing inwards, Cancer then dashed forward and captured Everlu between the two blades turned tongs

Holding the blades together with one hand Cancer turned to Lucy with Everlu struggling wildly trying to escape

"now what? –ebi", Cancer asked

"let me go you overgrown seafood platter! Don't you know who I am!? I'm…", Everlu's annoying rant was cut off by a gasp from Levy

* * *

"VOLCANIC PILLAR!"

Smacking the end of the dragon's fang into the ground a pillar of fire had heat exploded upwards around Natsu throwing the three children back, all three repositioned and nimbly landed on their feet, deciding to change tactic they all pointed their weapons at Natsu

"VOID BLAST!"

"SHADOW COBRA!"

"LIGHT GRENADE!"

The three attacks converging on the still lieutenant seemed to happen in slow motion, Natsu using the staff as a pole vault clears the light attack's detonation, flips around horizontally and decapitated the large shadow snake with a slice of fire before landing and batting the green energy orb into the group of adult members who were attempting to flee

Undeterred Minerva charged in again while the two younger boys prepared another magic attack

"perhaps I should wrap this up", Natsu muttered before nimbly twirling the staff round, knocking both Minerva's hands away form her body and thrusting the end of his staff into her forehead, instantly knocking her out cold

Natsu then turned and using incredible speed rushed to stand beside Rouge, the boy looked shocked at the fact his target had moved so fast and was too slow on the uptake to defend the oncoming attack, Natsu swung the staff low sweeping the boy's legs out from under him and as he fell towards the earth with his eyes to the sky, Natsu quickly repositioned the dragon's fang and swung down on the boy's torso, crashing him into the earth at a speed that caused cracks to form along its tiled surface

Natsu straightened and swung the staff around behind him in a wide arc

"HEAT WAVE!"

The wave of hot air easily picked Sting who had been shocked frozen up and flung him directly into a nearby pillar with enough force to knock the young man out, at that moment some of the scout reserves entered, having been attracted by the sounds of battle and they swiftly captured the three children and the adult guild members who were all resigned to defeat, some were even weeping and whining at how unfair everything was. Satisfied, Natsu then left the courtyard, following his nose…

* * *

"I must admit you two are easily most formidable opponents, for mages at least…", The shorter of the vanish brothers said

"But unfortunately for you, your skills won't be enough, myself and my brother are specially trained to deal with mages.", the taller of the two nodded as his brother monologued

"You see: we spend every hour of everyday we are not on a mission training our bodies to become the most skilled and unbeatable fighters, mere mages who instead spend their time training their minds to better preform magic and neglect their bodies will be incapable to ever defeat us"

"Hey Jet. I think this guy talks too much. What about you?", Droy said with a scowl

"I couldn't agree more, but it's the other one's dumb face that pisses me off", Jet replied

"what do you say we switch?", Droy proposed

"Done! Besides this fight is irritating me, how about we go all out?", Jet responded with a cocky smirk

"Oh? Getting bored are we, mage? Well I must say that I'm inclined to agree with you… Brother. Let's finish this!", the older brother held the pan out parallel to the floor and the younger stepped onto it, then in a display of incredible strength the smaller man tossed his larger sibling into the air

Following the trajectory of the large man the two fairy tail mages missed the older brother's mutterings, " _as you look to the heavens…"_

"WE STRIKE FROM THE EARTH!"

The smaller man swung his pan around, it cleanly collided with Droy, throwing him into a nearby bookcase and he then pivoted and back kicked Jet into his recovering friend. The two's attention now focused on the older vanish brother missed the younger's voice, " _and as you peer to the earth…"_

"WE STRIKE FROM THE HEAVENS!"

The large man crashed onto the unprepared mages with enough force to crash through the floor and an opposing wall, sending them both careening into the mansion's large foyer

"HEAVEN AND EARTH EXTINCT SLAYING ATTACK!"

The vanish brother's bellowed in stereo

"that should do it…", The older then said as he jumped nimbly down with the frying pan set casually across his shoulder

"I just hope Mr Everlu doesn't get too mad we broke his house.", The younger said

"meh, we'll just blame it on the mages…", The older brother dismissed before the movement of rubble caught the pair's attention

A large slab of rubble moved over to reveal a large sphere made of vines, as it unraveled the two fairy tail mages appeared, Droy clutching one of his arms and Jet with a gash above his left eye, Jet let out a low whistle as he looked around at the damage caused

"that's quite the attack, for non-mages at least…", he said with the same cocky smirk from earlier

"That's impossible! No one has ever survived the heaven and earth extinct slaying attack!", The smaller vanish brother exclaimed looking affronted

"and that name!", Droy exclaimed with a smirk matching his friend's

"such a mouthful! Well Jet, the've gone all out, how about we do the same?", Droy said raising his arms out so he stood straight with his wrists crossed over each other, one Palm to the floor, the other the ceiling

"Took the words right of my mouth…", Jet said lowering his body in a pose that looked exactly like those of Olympic sprinters, after a moment his body began to glow a bright white...

"MACH TEN!"

Jet seemed to disappear, leaving only a loud bang as the sound barrier shattered, the younger vanish brother's face became etched in shock at it seemed three Jets appeared before him; one crouched low, the second preparing a punch and the third winding up for a roundhouse kick; seemingly all at once, the younger brother was uppercut, punched in the gut and sent flying across the room from a roundhouse kick

As he flew, his body convulsed as Jet landed punches and kicks across the man's entire being without once affecting his flight path. The older vanish brother looked shocked at his brother's seemingly impossible defeat before quickly turning to the other mage who he found with his eyes closed and his palms glowing dark green

"GARDENS OF JOYA!"

The ground throughout the room developed cracks and not a moment later a great forest of thick vines grew and buffeted the older brother, he tried to raise his weapon in defence but found it had been pinned to the floor by thin vines wrapped around it and he was unable to move it, he released the pan and tried to jump away only for more vines to burst from the earth and entangle his legs causing him to fall and become encased in vines.

"And that's that", Droy said as he sat down quickly, Jet came to a stop and bent over breathing deeply

"phew… Yup, huff, I wonder, huff, how the girls are doing?", He said.

* * *

"What is it?! Have you found out where that worthless author hid his fortune!? TELL ME!", Everlu screeched, still being held captive by Cancer's odd weapon

"shut it you monster! I can't believe you would stoop so low as to do that to someone!", Levy yelled looking furious

"What are you talking about you miserable thief!?", Everlu asked in indignation

"you forced Kemu Zaelon to write this book didn't you!?", Levy accused pointing an angry finger at the captured man

"of course not! Where would you even get such an idea like that you ugly little girl!"

"Don't lie to me! It says it all right here!", Levy yelled , now pointing at the book in her hands

"what in Earthland are you blabbering about!? That book's barely eligible as literature! Besides its plot is about yours truly not Zaelon!", Everlu responded, now beginning to sweat slightly

"Levy? What are you talking about?", Lucy asked timidly, honestly scared of the shorter girl's temper, the bluenette in question let out a huff of hot air and looked at her companion

"the book had a magical enchantment on it, one that rearranged the words so that someone like _him…",_ she sent a scathing look at their captive

"couldn't read what it really says", she explained

"So what does it say?", Lucy asked, half excited and half scared about the answer

"well the idiot duke is right about one thing, in its original form this book is easily the worst one I have ever read, it's supposed to be about a 'Count Neverla' so basically Everlu in every aspect but name", she began to explain

"And who wouldn't jump at the chance to write a book about me, I'm easily the pinnacle of humanity! Unlike you two…" Everlu said snobbishly

"SHUT UP!", The girls screamed in stereo

"as I was saying, the original form details the counts adventures that almost certainly never happened, but the book after the enchantment is unraveled tells a much darker story"

"What? What does it say?", Lucy asked, completely entranced with the small woman's story telling skills

"Do you remember when Kemu Zaelon wrote his last book?", Levy asked unexpectedly

"well yea, it was about thirty five years ago wasn't it?", Lucy answered

"thirty three but close enough, I now know why…"

"After publishing one hit after another, this narcissistic ass approached Zaelon and proposed a story with him as the main character, and he expected it to be done completely for free! Obviously Zaelon refused outright having more pride as a writer than that"

"But it turns out this guys isn't just a duke he's also a major M.P. And threatened to take away the citizenship of Zaelon and his entire family if he didn't cooperate and write the book, seeing no way out, Zaelon agreed but Everlu was angry about the initial rejection and so locked him up in a solitary cell until the novel was finished"

"The book also contained his last will and testament and his last words to his family and friends, which also explains why this job exists, Kemu Zaelon is a pseudo name, his real name is Zekua _Melon._ ", Levy finished explaining, causing Lucy to gasp

"th-this book… Does it say anything about m-my uhh… Dealings?", Everlu asked now sweating quite profusely, Levy turned to him with a simply evil smirk on her face

"oh it says all _kinds_ of things about your 'dealings'", Levy said maliciously, _I feel sorry for any boyfriends she ever has,_ Lucy thought, unfortunately hearing what Levy said Everlu doubled his efforts to escape and managed to free one of his arms and in it Lucy saw something gold catch the light

"OPEN: GATE OF THE MAIDEN! VIRGO, BATTLE FORM!"

"Ehh!?", Lucy exclaimed

"you're a celestial spirit mage too!?", before them Virgo burst from the ground, the spirit was feminine, with a slight body and the same bright pink hair as the gorilla woman, on her wrists and ankles were shackles with two or three rings of chain on each, her clothing was form fitting black and white leather hunting gear, she also had war paint on her face that looked like she was adorned with a purple skull

Despite the fearsome paint it was undeniable the spirit was quite the looker even though she had an apathetic look adorning her face

"ugh! I hate having you use this form, it makes you look so ugly! No matter, Virgo! Get me out of here and deal with these pests, don't let them leave here alive! They know too much!", Everlu screamed orders

"Cancer! You can let Everlu go! Protect me!", Lucy cried in fear as the Amazon of a woman rushed at her, Cancer immediately and unceremoniously dropped Everlu and ran to Lucy's side, blocking a swing from the female spirit he split his blades apart again and began returning attacks

Lucy could see plain as day that Virgo was the stronger spirit but she knew that she had more magic power to supply to her spirit making it not battle of strength but of endurance, well at least that was the case until Levy stepped in

"SOLID SCRIPT! FLAME!"

The word 'flame' made of solid flames appeared before Levy before she released the spell into one continuous stream of fire towards the pink haired spirit, having been caught off guard Virgo took the hit head on and Everlu stumbled form the intense magical drain on his body

"Virgo finish this quickly!", He yelled beginning to fear defeat

"yes master.", The spirit responded in a bored sounding voice before lunging at Cancer, blocking the attack with the flat of his right blade, he swung the left one round only for it to be blocked by the shackle on Virgo's right wrist

"Mistress! Little comrade! Buy me a second!", Cancer exclaimed as he jumped back

"Can do" Lucy exclaimed with whip in hand

"I AM NOT LITTLE!", Levy yelled with a tick developing on her forehead

"SOLID SCRIPT! EARTH!"

As the Levy wrote the word before her, Lucy flung the whip round, tying the female spirit's ankles together; the word now complete, Levy releases the spell in the form of five letters made of solid earth hurtling towards the trapped spirit

The spirit in question simply raised her hands and the letters simply dissolved into dust and settled in a pile behind her, she then reached down and in one quick movement grabbed the whip and snatched it out of Lucy's hands

As this happened Cancer once again placed his left blade over his right but this time with his wrists crossed so the edges faced inwards, with a snap the two were locked and his weapon now resembled a giant pair of razor sharp scissors

Lunging forward he stabbed at the opposing spirit who was forced to dive into the earth to protect herself, she resurfaced behind the crab spirit but he was prepared, releasing his grip on the left handle he swung the left blade on its pivot like a fan, the unorthodox attack method caught Virgo by surprise and she suffered a deep gash up her midsection

Lucy and Levy knew the battle was over, Virgo looked far too tired to continue and Everlu looked and sounded like he was running a marathon

"Virgo … Huff… Why have … Huff … You stopped!?", Everlu angrily asked between pants but just as he did his magic ran out and Virgo disappeared in a small flash of light

"Useless spirit…", Everlu huffed before passing out himself

 **Jeez look at that, it's like a fucking essay, whelp I'm not really sorry this took so long, me starting sixth form has left me with tonnes of homework and trying to balance school work, social life and regular sleep patterns has put this little project on the back burner, only something I really work on when I don't want to do my math homework or just feel like I've left it sitting too long**

 **That is to say by no means am I quitting it's just updates may be a little slower, but if for what ever reason I don't update in more than two months you have my permission to yell at me**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

 **Disclaimer. That's it. I'm done, what more do you want?**

* * *

"So how'd your first mission go, Lucy? I got most of the details from Levy and I must say it was admirable of you to return the book to the author's son", Mira asked cheerily from over the bar

"Yea I suppose didn't get any money… But then again that doesn't really matter that much, because I got this key!", Lucy said proudly getting out Virgo's key and showing it to the white hired barmaid

"Umm ok. How does it work?", Mira asked confused why the blond girl was getting so excited over a key

"well when Everlu was sent to prison his contract with this spirit was broken and it was sent to me as requested by the spirit, I actually don't know why, I guess I'll just have to ask her.", Lucy explained

"Oh so that's a spirit key?", they heard Lisanna ask as she came up behind them and pointed at the key in Lucy's hand

"Yup! This is the golden key of the maid; Virgo. Thinking about it I should really set up a contract with her sooner rather than later", Lucy said

"Hmm? How does that work?", Mira asked

"It's easy really, I'll head back to my flat then I'll set one up, you can come if you want…", Lucy began before being interrupted by Mira

"You aren't in fairy hills?", She asked

"Fairy hills? What's that?", Lucy asked confused, Lisanna began to lightly laugh before answering

"fairy hills is the female dorms of the guild, the rent is only like 50,000 jewels a month so literally everyone except me and Mira live there", the younger white haired girl explained

"50,000!? That's 20,000 less than what my normal rent is!? Ugh! Why wasn't I told about this sooner!?", Lucy exclaimed only causing Lisanna to laugh harder, Mira giggled a little before returning to the matter at hand

"about the contract. Why don't you do it here, I'm sure everyone would be interested to see how it works", she proposed

"I uhh well I don't know…", Lucy stuttered uncertainly

"nonsense. Hey everyone! Lucy's going to show us how spirit contracts are made!", Mira called gathering the attention of those nearby

Calls of "really?" And "sounds interesting" we're heard and soon the trio had a small crowd, noticing the gathering of his guild mates a man with spiky orange hair, blue tinted frameless glasses and a green frilled jacket approached from behind one of the gathered members

"What's going on?", He asked

The man with sandy blonde hair jumped before turning around to face the man

"Oh Loke. You surprised me", he exclaimed

"Sorry Max, but anyway what's going on?", Loke asked

"Oh? Apparently the new girl's gunna show us how celestial spirits are contracted", Max said, he then turned back to the matter at hand, not noticing Loke break out into a cold sweat and quickly make his way out of the guild hall

"OPEN: GATE OF THE MAIDEN! VIRGO"

Lucy called, pulling the golden key through the air, a white/gold glow encased her and the space before her and suddenly a petite woman in a maid's outfit and pink hair was standing with a slight bow in the space

"Good morning mistress, my name is Virgo and I will be your personal assistant from now on", the spirit said respectfully, oohs and ahhs were heard throughout the assembled crowd

"Uhh, nice to meet you Virgo, but please, don't call me mistress, my name is Lucy and I don't need a personal assistant…", Lucy began only to be cut off by the pink haired spirit

"If you didn't need assistance why did you summon me, Master?", the spirit asked

"please, Virgo don't call me that, and I don't want a servant, I hope that instead we can be friends", the blond said with a bright smile, stunning the spirit as she detected no signs of ulterior motives in her new key holder

"I…uh… What would be acceptable for me to address you as?", the spirit asked trying to get the conversation back into familiar ground

"Just Lucy will be fine, Virgo", the young mage said cheerfully

"No, that won't do, will director be fine?"

"No", Lucy sighed

"Lady?"

"No"

"Governor?"

"NO!"

"Princess?"

Lucy let out a sigh as a lot of the onlooking crowd began to snicker

"No… actually nevermind, that's fine Virgo, if you insist on calling me something that will do", a small smile made its way onto Virgo's face and she bowed again

"I'm glad you find it acceptable, Princess"

"Heh, well how about we get onto the nitty gritty bit, Virgo… When are you available to be summoned?", Lucy asked, at this Virgo looked confused

"Whenever the Princess sees fit, I am here to serve after all", she answered simply

Now the confused look made its way to Lucy's face

"Really? There aren't any days you want off? Just to have to yourself? I can just summon you for whatever, whenever?", the blond asked

"Yes princess that is correct.", the maid spirit replied

"Huh wow, I can't even summon Aquarius most days because of her contract, well with the exceptions of emergencies", Lucy said, surprised

"Well on to the next bit of business, Virgo, am I capable of summoning you in your battle form?", the celestial spirt mage asked

"Undoubtedly princess, although I will require new weapons and armour since changing key keeper.", Virgo answered

"Of course, we'll sort that out at a later date, is there anything else I should know about Virgo?", Lucy asked

"Yes. I have a form of magic called 'earth mover' allowing me to preform fairly advanced earth magic and dive through solid ground", the pinkette replied

"Wow that could be useful, well Virgo it looks like this concludes the forms of our contract. I will be able to summon you from wherever I see fit, whenever I see fit in either your battle or you regular form, you will be unable to bring myself harm and will protect me absolutely until the event of my lawful incarceration or death unless our contract is terminated before hand. Do you agree to these terms?", Lucy concluded putting her hand out for a formal handshake

The small smile made its way back onto Virgo's face

"Indeed I do, princess", Virgo agreed firmly shaking Lucy's hand, a bright flash engulfed the two of them and Virgo disappeared

"Until I am summoned again, princess", the assembled fairy tails members heard Virgo's voice call

A small stretch of silence ensued before chaos broke out, calls of "that was awesome" or "so cool" we're fairly common

"Are they usually this rowdy?", Lucy asked the platinum haired sisters watching with amused smiles

"Yup pretty much… You get used to it", Lisanna answered

"It's not bad, just… Confusing", the blond elaborated before the front doors were bashed in and Loke came running right back in

"Hey Loke, what's up?", A random member asked, curious to know what had got one of the stronger sub-main members so riled up

"Erza! Erza just pulled in at the train station!", He exclaimed

Immediately the chaos that had been brewing and silence prevailed for a second until everyone began moving quickly to what appeared to be assigned positions

"We have a CODE RED people let's move", was shouted from the top floor and soon everyone was acting inconspicuous

" _What just happened?_ ", Lucy whispered to the Strauss siblings that had remained unmoved throughout the 'code red' -whatever the hell that was-

"Hmm, I suppose you wouldn't know would you? This is as you've probably guessed this is called a 'code red' scenario, we use it to judge what kind of mood Erza's in before we do the normal crazy shenanigans", Lisanna explained

 _What kind of beast is Erza!?,_ Lucy thought beginning to sweat a little as the light flooding in between the guild hall's open doors was blocked, turning to look at the blockage Lucy saw an impossible sight: in the doorway was a slender woman with long red hair, she was wearing simple armour from the brand 'heart kreuz' and a blue miniskirt with black boots, Lucy could see her blue guild mark on the upper middle of her left arm

In _one arm_ she carried an impossibly large horn and in her other she wielded a sword also of the smiths at heart kreuz, her brown eyes scanned the room before falling on the smiling Mira, the terrified Lucy and the curious Lisanna. She dropped the horn on its larger edge with a resounding thud that Lucy swore made the floor quake and strode purposefully towards them

"Mira!" She called

"where's master?", She asked as she approached the bar and sat down

"He's in clover at the annual meeting for guild masters, why?", Mira responded

"Shit! It's as bad as I feared! Mira, you know everyone here better than I do… I need a team of the strongest here", Erza commanded, Mira looked annoyed for a brief second at being ordered by her ex rival but it quickly disappeared and she looked thoughtful

"well I guess if you want powerful mages, you would want Gray, Cana, Alzack, Bisca and my brother and sister; they're probably the strongest non S class mages.", Mira responded

"When do you need them?", Mira asked

"Now!" Erza quickly shot back

"oh well in that case your options are only Gray and Lisanna, Elfman's off training heaven knows where, Alzack and Bisca left on a mission this morning and Cana's passed out; drunk off her ass behind the counter over there", Mira explained pointing to the brunette sleeping peacefully sprawled out behind the bartop

"I doubt that's enough! Are there any others?", Erza asked after deliberating for a moment,

"Not really in the same league. Why?", Mira asked becoming curious, Erza let out a sigh before answering

"It would take too long to explain but as a summary, the guild masters are in danger!", Erza said

"What? What's going on?", Lisanna cut in

"I caught wind of lamia scale uncovering a plot by the dark guild eisenwald to kill the guild masters, they managed to stop them, but I hear a few escaped, I expect they plan to try again before the guild leaders leave clover which is… When?", Erza elaborated

"The meeting ends tomorrow, meaning they'll probably attack tonight, crap you're right you need to leave immediately", Mira said grasping the situation

"And you'll probably need more members than just sis and Gray", Mira repeated, thinking out loud

"How about Lucy? I heard she did pretty well on her first mission.", Lisanna put in, pointing at the blond who had been watching the discussion with interest

"Wha!? Me!? But I-I-I've only been on one mission, is it really wise to let me come on something so important!?", Lucy asked flustered as the conversation was directed at her

"Oh? I don't believe we've met, I'm Erza Scarlet, Fairy tail S class mage, I use requip magic. And you are?", Erza introduced

"I uhh… I'm Lucy, uhh new recruit? I use celestial spirit magic. Nice to meet you", Lucy stumbled out her answer

"Celestial spirit magic? That's a type of summoning magic isn't it?", Erza asked, her interest peaked

"Uhh yea, it's a holding type of magic, I use my keys to summon spirit from their realm and they help me with my problems, usually involving violence", Lucy answered

"And you have a range of spirits under your control?", Erza asked

"uhh well I have four of the stronger ones but I can only summon them one at a time and even then the longest I've ever had one out for was about three and a half hours and that was simply because she refused to go back…", Lucy trailed off remembering the time Aquarius refused to return to the spirit world and thoroughly drained her magic, Erza nodded once then turned back to Mira

"Is there the possibility of anyone else?", She asked, once again seeming to completely ignoring Lisanna and Lucy

"You'll probably be fighting dark mages. Hmm. I would recommend team shadow gear but they do tend to tire quickly when faced with more than one opponent", Mira brainstormed out loud

" _yea, and then Levy has to bail them out",_ Lisanna mumbled recalling when she went on a mission with the team and seemingly the instant they entered a fight Jet and Droy were out cold and she and Levy had to face the rest of the goons on their own

"Did you say something sis?" Mira asked

"Huh? No. how about Loke? He's pretty strong", Lisanna proposed

"Hmm I'd rather not, his magic's kinda a one shot deal, not really suited for extended brawling, well no matter we'll just have to make do with what we've got, Mira. If the Gunslingers return tell them to head to clover as fast as they can.", Erza commanded before standing up

"Gray!", she called across the hall, a man with long spiky raven hair looked up, his fringe obscuring his forehead, he was seated but he appeared to be naked, his chest displayed with a total lack of concern, around his neck was a silver pendant in the shape of a sword

"Hmm? Yea, what?", He called back

"We need to leave. It's urgent, master may be in danger, I will explain it all to you on the way to clover", Erza said as she strode past with Lisanna following close behind, she turned to look at Lucy who was still seated at the bar, amazed by the woman's dedication and one track mind

"Aren't you coming?", she said to the blond

"Huh? What! Me?", Lucy exclaimed

"Yes you! Come on, we don't have time to lose!", the red head exclaimed and Lucy shot up and ran to catch up with the other three

"Can one of you lot take this to my trophy in my room please. Thanks!", Erza called into the guild hall behind her as the four of them left. The assembled members all looked with faces of apprehension at the absurdly large horn that Erza had deposited in the hall

* * *

While on the express train to Clover, Erza explained the situation further, it turned out that the dark guild eisenwald planned to use a demon sealed inside a flute to kill every guild master while they were together and unsuspecting at the conference

The demon called lullaby had been sealed almost two hundred years ago, near the end of the black wizard Zeref's reign of terror and destruction and the curse it released when played was supposed to kill everyone who heard it

Lamia scale had stopped the initial attack but had sustained severe injuries and many of the eisenwald dark wizards escaped with the cursed flute in their possession

"So that's the situation. Any questions?", Erza asked

"Yea actually, if this involves all of the guild masters, why are we the only ones going for defence?", Lucy asked

"All of the guilds are sending teams but fairy tail is the closet and we'll be the only ones who can make it in time", Erza explained

"Heads up guys, this is our stop", Lisanna said, she had casted a slayer technique that essentially hovered her a few centimetres in the air, allowing for her to glide at high speeds, walk on water and conveniently dodge the effects of motion sickness

The fairy tail mages quickly made heir way out of the station

"So where's the conference centre from here?", Gray asked

"It's still a couple of miles out, we should acquire a magic four wheeler", Erza said casting her gave around the town in search of a dealership

"Are you sure that's a good idea Erza? Those things take up a lot of energy at high speeds, we're going to need all the magic power we can spare if this is as bad as you say", Lisanna pointed out

"That doesn't matter, you three can defend if they attack early and we still have time for me to get my strength back", the redhead rebutted as she purchased a magic powered car from a shrewd looking dealer

On the short trip to the centre the four of them decided to get to know each other further, Gray described his magic as being able to form ice into any structure he saw fit, the only two limits being his imagination and the magic required to form large quantities of ice quickly, he briefly described his childhood, how his parents had been killed by the demon Deliora which had since disappeared, how he had been adopted and taught magic by a woman named Ur along with another boy called Lyon, unfortunately a threat appeared in the country they lived in and Ur sent her pupils away while she stayed to assist in dealing with the threat, Gray had made his way to fairy tail and Lyon to lamia scale

Lisanna described her time from joining the guild onwards, she smiled ever so brightly while talking about Natsu but as she reached the end of her story her face fell but both she and Happy looked determined when they exclaimed that they would find him. Her takeover magic was a simple to learn, impossible to master type of magic that had the Mage and all their forms constantly evolving to tackle new challenges faced by them

Erza also described her life since joining the guild, her rivalry with the old Mira, her ascension to S class and a extremely long list of weapons and armour she could utilise in battle, she luckily opted not to demonstrate on account of her being the one driving the vehicle

Lucy noticed that neither of the other two female mages talked about their childhood before joining the guild but could respect their wish to keep them quiet, she didn't particularly want to tell them her past either albeit for different reasons, luckily she didn't get the chance to talk about herself as they arrived at the top of a hill looking down at the conference building just as the sun began to set

They decided to stay there as they could see the entire area and could make it down quickly if need be. They set up camp, sent Happy down to alert the masters that hey had arrived and were fortifying the area, it turned out they had arrived just in time because just as Happy returned to his mother's side, eisenwald appeared

* * *

The sun was slowly setting and Natsu was running the perimeter of the now abandoned guild hall, it was an impressive building, one that Sabertooth had refused to give up in favour for something more camouflaged and practical like this world's fairy tail had

Catching a scent on the wind that he had learned to associate with fear Natsu picked up the pace, he turned a corner to be faced with a shocking image, a white haired woman who looked to be about twenty years older than himself was pinned down beneath one of the men he recognised to be from the fourth battalion by his uniform

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?", Lieutenant Ignea exclaimed in indignation, the man who was holding the woman captive jumped at being caught, as he turned to see who his captor was with a lecherous look on his face, he relaxed seeing his commanding officer which only served to piss Natsu off even more

"Oh, lieutenant it's just you, I was just going to have some fun with this saber trash, you know, teach her a lesson", he turned back to his conquest whose face had morphed into one of terror, whether because she heard her captors intentions or because she recognised the powerful lieutenant or even a mixture of both

"N-no please", the woman sobbed, the man pinning her down laughed a cruel laugh

"you hear that lieutenant, I got her to cry, pathetic", he slapped his captive and Ignea's expression darkened even more, his enhanced hearing caught the sound of sobbing coming from somewhere other than the Sabertooth woman, the woman in question also seemed to hear the noise and moved her gaze away from lecherous man pinning her to the earth

Ignea followed her gaze and saw a girl, with silvery-blue like hair like the woman pinned down only as old as those two boys who had helped the master's daughter in his earlier fight, it seemed the man from the fourth battalion also saw the girl and his grin only grew

"Oh? It looks like we have an audience. How fun, perhaps I'll have my fun with you when I'm done here too", he said in what appeared to be full seriousness, the woman's face showed terror but also a hint of determination

"Yukino! Get out of here! Quickly!", the pinned woman called in desperation, the man only laughed harder as she remained frozen in fear

"b-but Sorano…," the little girl sobbed

"GO!"

Ignea's gaze hardened _he intends to do this! And with children present no less. Monster._

"Ho? Lieutenant, still here? Oh I know! You want to teach her a lesson first?", He asked

"A lesson? You know what. Get off her.", Ignea ordered, the man did just that with a look of excitement on his face, fully expecting a show

Natsu took a step towards the woman on the ground who had made no effort to stand up but was still staring at the younger girl, in the extreme corner of his peripheral vision Ignea could see the man beginning to lower his fly, growling loudly he swiftly pulled dragon's fang off his back and poked it into the shocked man's chest

"Flame lock"

Ignea calmly said and a large orb of fire surrounded the man ho could only flail in fear and pain " _burn_ ", Natsu said with the upmost contempt for the man with no regard to his fellow human being, the orb of fire burned away the man's jacket while he writhed and convulsed in a desperate attempt to save himself

Before the attack could leave the man with any long lasting injuries Natsu cut of the magic supply leaving the man to slump in pained relief as the three women looked on in shock,

"Tell me soldier, what makes this woman less than you? What makes these children trash? Is it because they use magic? Is it because they fight for a cause you oppose? Is it because you feel like more of a _man_ by making a pretty woman you've never met submit to your disgusting will? Is it!? GET OUT OF MY SIGHT! AND IF I EVER HEAR OF YOU DOING SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN THE FIRE IN HELL WONT COMPARE TO THE WRATH I WILL RAIN DOWN ONTO YOU!", Ignea roared expressing the lungs his father had changed his human ones into

The man with terrified tears in his eyes quickly got up and ran away, fearing for his life. Satisfied, Natsu turned to the Sabertooth woman behind him; she had got up and was standing protectively in front of the younger

"Your sister?" Natsu asked, seeing and smelling the similarities between the pair

The woman only nodded before she found her voice again

"y-yes, thank you", she said timidly still scared, especially after seeing the man's temper released

"What will you do now?", Natsu asked, the three lowered themselves into identical fighting stances with their fists in front of their faces

"We won't go in without a fight!", the first woman said, her determination returning

Natsu only smiled behind his cowl and turned sharply on his heel and began to walk away

"if you go east for about fifty miles you'll come across a small village", he called over his shoulder, if he had turned he would have seen the oldest girl's look of shock and the youngest break into a bright smile

"Thanks mister!", the youngest girl called causing Natsu to smile as he continued on his patrol

* * *

From their vantage point the fairy tail mages could see a group easily exceeding thirty dark mages beelining it towards the conference hall

"I thought you said lamia scale culled their numbers!", Lucy exclaimed beginning to doubt their success

"They did. But look that group's from ghoul spirit and those ones are from dark unicorn", Lisanna said pointing out some of the attackers

"It's seems that eisenwald brought reinforcements, no matter, DO NOT LET THEM GET TO THE CONFERENCE HALL!", Erza yelled as a battle cry and requipped into her heavens wheel armour and speed towards the now alerted dark mages

"So much for the element of surprise…", Lucy commented dryly before drawing out her Taurus key

"ICE MAKE; SLIDE!"

Gray exclaimed and quickly sped down the hill on a intricately designed slide of ice that melted away seemingly as he slid down it

"Fullbody takeover; dire wolf!"

Lisanna said loudly as her form morphed into that of a large shaggy grey/white wolf with cold blue eyes and rows of razor sharp teeth, Lisanna in the quite imposing form shot down the hill after her guild mates

"OPEN: GATE OF THE BULL; TAURUS, ANIMA FORM"

The area shone briefly before a large gold bull with a ring in the shape of his sign through its nose appeared, the bull was easily twice the size of the normal of the animal it represented, Lucy quickly and expertly vaulted onto the large beast's back

"quickly Taurus, follow that wolf", Lucy commanded pointing out Lisanna's rapidly retreating form, Without a word at how ironic that command was Taurus broke out into a run with Lucy holding onto a harness along the large cow's back

"Ho ho Lucy, enjoying the ride back there…", the golden bull said without moving its mouth

"Perhaps we could do this again sometime… In my normal form…", the cow said lecherously

"Ugh! Not now Taurus can you just focus on getting us to those dark mages please", Lucy asked having just been reminded of Taurus' perverted tendencies

"Anything for Lucy and her beautiful body!", the bull exclaimed before speeding up towards the field rapidly turning into a battleground

Erza had shot through the ranks of the dark guilds, immediately knocking out three of them and was presently making short work of a group of about ten while the rest of their ranks continued their desperate dash towards the hall

"ICE MAKE, WALL!"

The magic literally froze two of the mages in their tracks and the rest screeched to a halt before the large and intricately cut ice wall Gray had erected in front of them, before they could even begin to start wearing it down, Lisanna –still in her dire wolf form- pounced on them, knocking one out and giving another a nasty gash on his arm, her form glowed and she changed again in midair

Her new form was also her oldest and favourite; her tigress takeover was the first takeover form she had ever designed for battle and as such was the most refined and deadly of all her takeovers, when she had first created it, it had been simple; a pair of cat ears appeared on her head and a tail at her lower back, her hands and feet had morphed into the clawed paws of the tigress and her attire had changed into a simple white tiger stripped two piece bikini

But over the years, that had changed, the takeover was now a lot more intimidating, her snow white hair grew down to the middle of her back and spiked out, her face took on a more feline quality as did her eyes which seemed to look into the depths of your soul, instead of the two merger articles of clothing she instead wore white tiger striped cargo pants and an open jacket which cut off at her ribs that exposed her midriff and a similarly patterned bra

Instead of the large padded paws on her hands and feet she instead wore white fingerless fighting gloves but her fingers still grew intimidating claws and her feet were wrapped in both white and black fabric that was as tough enough to completely nullify the bone breaking kick the newly transformed girl unleashed on the nearest dark mage

The distinct crunch of a bone breaking brought a small smirk to the girls face, revealing her razor sharp fangs and a sadistic glint in her eye she had slowly inherited from Mira, Gray was content to just watch the two girls tear through the dark mages with brutal efficiency, _perhaps this will be easier than we thought,_ he mused silently until a shout caught his attention

"Gray there's a second wave coming from the west!", Happy called down to him seeing as he was unoccupied

"Shit! Seriously? Come on let's go!", He exclaimed, jumping into the air, trusting the blue feline to catch him

"What's going on?", Lucy yelled

"There's a second front on the other side of the hall, we need to go deal with it!", Gray exclaimed quickly

"How fast can you get there?", He asked

"I don't know, Taurus?", She replied

"Just set the speed ice man and I can keep up", the bull responded, Gray simply nodded

"Let's go Happy!", He said

"Aye sir!", the cat exclaimed as he shot off, Taurus quickly matched the blue cat's pace

"What about the other two?", Lucy asked slightly worried about the other two they were leaving behind

"Don't worry about it, they can handle it", he said reassuringly, as they ran/flew the second group of dark mages before them Gray noticed something and released a string of profanities

"What!?", Lucy asked incredulously, wondering what got her teammate so suddenly worked up

"you see that guy at the front", Gray growled out, Lucy looked and saw a tall, lean man with spiky silver hair, his chest and face were adorned with blue tattoos and his lower half was covered by a torn skirt like article, he carried on his shoulder a large, wicked looking scythe but the thing that most shocked Lucy was that he appeared to by _flying_ , Seeing her shocked look Gray continued

"That's Erigor, he's eisenwald's strongest and an extremely powerful wind mage, let me deal with him, do you think you can take the grunts?", He asked

"Uhh, yea sure, no problem", she said with as much confidence she could muster, picking up on her fear Gray commented

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine besides if you can't handle it, Happy can get you out and the others will help", he reassured

She nodded and returned her attention the the dark mages who had stopped and were waiting for the two of them to attack, as they approached Lucy drew her whip and pulled herself into a crouch on Taurus' back and Gray fisted one hand and placed it into the palm of his other

Simultaneously Lucy leapt from Taurus' back and Happy dropped Gray, the two of them taking battle ready stances and Taurus continued to charge at the dark mages

"ICE MAKE, CANNON!"

"NOW TAURUS! BATTLE FORM!"

The two yelled in sync and Taurus' form was engulfed in light.

* * *

 **that's the format editing done. now everything is perfect, there's no more errors (hopefully) and some points make more sense.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

 **Yawn… uh? What? Disclaimer? What are you on about? Ugh screw you, go to chapter 1 or 10 they're over there, now go away, I'm trying to sleep… stupid lawyers…**

* * *

As the perfect ball of solid ice collided with Erigor's head and sent him hurtling away from his group of underlings the light faded and a massive double headed axe collided with the hasty defence of a startled dark mage, colliding with it, him and the three behind him; knocking them all out instantly

At the other end of the axe was a large anthropomorphic bull, with a black hide and pupil less eyes. His large torso was covered by a silver chestplate that Lucy knew to be made of moonsteel; his head was adorned by a normandic esque helmet but with large curved horns and the hands he was using to swing his giant-fuck-off-axe with were covered by spiked gauntlets made of a black metal. The golden ring in his nose, the lack of pupils and the enraged look on his face were enough to send a few of the dark mages packing

Swinging the axe around again, taking out three more mages, the large spirit let out an enrage roar like "moo" that echoed across the group before continuing his assault

"And here I thought this would be difficult" Lucy said condescendingly as she watched her spirit tear through the opposing mages

* * *

A mere few paces away Gray was facing off against Erigor who was looking no worse for wear despite the large chunk of ice that would have given a normal man a decent concussion

"So the pathetic fairies will be the ones to stand in our way, tch no matter, you, like many before you, will fall to the scythe of the Death God!" The floating man exclaimed, twirling his weapon threateningly

"Not likely, ICE MAKE: COLD EXCALIBUR!" Gray yelled. A great sword easily as long as he was tall and then some formed in about half a second, appearing in his outstretched hands, the large ice blade was wicked sharp and a bright white/blue, with curved decals and a cluster of crystals along the hilt and pommel. Without hesitation the somehow now mostly naked ice mage swung his new weapon on the apathetic wind mage.

In retaliation Erigor simply spun the edge of his scythe around to block the overhead blow, all without moving from a floating lotus position he had assumed, with a bored look he "tch'd" again and with barely a flinch a gust of wind blew past him and directly into Gray, knocking him back but not over. Undeterred Gray rushed forward again and continued swinging.

But despite all his efforts, he couldn't land a hit, every swing was met with Erigor's parry and with every thrust Erigor summoned a gust of wind to redirect it away from his person

"What's the matter? Why aren't you fighting back? Oh I know! I've got you on the run don't I? You can't even get enough of a break to attack me can you?" Gray baited the dark mage, whose eyes narrowed in annoyance before he rushed forward at a speed that could have rivalled Lisanna or even Jet, and swung his scythe in a wide arc, with the sole intention of taking the cocky mage's head off

Surprised, but unflinching Gray brought up his icy blade to parry only to have it cleaved clean in two. Only after a short exclamation of surprise, a hasty duck and a large leap out of slicing range did Gray fully grasp how much trouble he was in

 _Crap. This guy's strong, I'm gunna have to pull out all the stops with this one._ Falling again into his summoning stance Gray began collecting power as he mentally went through anything he could make that could help him in this situation.

With only the warning of a strong gust of wind to prepare him, Erigor was in his face, grinning like a madman and his scythe slicing through the air towards him, he was out of time to prepare.

Panicking, Gray placed his hands in front of him and unleashed a burst of raw ice magic, taking the form of basic crystalline structures the blast of blue energy and ice shards shoved Erigor back.

The wind mage, now looking a little worse for wear looked in disdain at the large ice shard still attached to his chest before spinning his weapon around and smashing it off with only the slightest of winces

"Oh man, Ur would've had my ass if she saw that one. I need to work on raw stylising." Gray muttered, already forming a plan

"Silence! You have tried my patience for long enough _fly!_ I will destroy you and then the pathetic legal guilds you love so much!" Erigor screeched as he prepared to rush the shirtless man again

"ICE MAKE: RAZOR SPACE!" Gray called, using a large portion of his magic energy to create hundreds if not thousands of subtilely complex, razor sharp icicles that hung in the air around him, razor sharp ice bits that Erigor flew straight into.

The man screamed in pain and fell from the air as his concentration was broken, thousands of tiny cuts peppered his body and even his scythe seemed to be chipped in places, before he could get over the sudden pain of both the attack and thudding to the ground Gray called out

"ICE MAKE: RESTRAINTS", thick pillars of ice materialised either side of the fallen dark mage and quickly wrapped around his body, forcing his arms to his sides and allowing no movement from his legs, the pillars then burrowed into the ground and anchored themselves there

Shocked back into awareness by the cold of his opponent's magic Erigor thrashed and writhed against his restraints that looked like they were carved out of marble.

"One of you idiots get me out of here!" He screamed after struggling fruitlessly for a couple of minutes, he raised his head to glare at his guild mates who had as of yet not come to help him, only to find them all unconscious, severely injured or both as three women approaching his captor

"Good work Gray" Erza called, having switched back into her regular attire, she was tailed by Lucy and Lisanna; who was still in her tigress takeover and was talking animatedly to Lucy about a pair of dark purple combat boots she had in her hands, as they approached Gray managed to make out what they were saying

"I dunno Lis, that colour really wouldn't look good on you" Lucy said eyeing the boots sceptically

"The colour doesn't matter, I can change that, I just wanted to know if you thought these would look good on this takeover?" The white haired woman reiterated

"Oh, well I don't know, why don't you try them on" Lucy recommended, Lisanna nodded and began to study the soles of the boots closely, moments later a white sparkly light enveloped her feet, leaving them bare, then the light seemed to materialise a layer of rubber that slowly formed into the tread of the boots

As Lisanna examined the boots they slowly appeared on her legs as she created them from her rudimentary understanding of how they acted, _I'll fine tune them later_ she thought, soon a pair of dirty-white combat boots clad her lower legs rather than the foot wraps, she smiled in appreciation; liking how they looked

"Oh! They look amazing!" Lucy squealed while Erza nodded in agreement

"I must agree" a voice that, for lack of a better word, sounded extremely camp called, drawing the attention of the four assembled mages, their gazes fell on a fat bald man wearing an unfortunately unflattering pink dress and sparkly fairy wings, standing at his side was the familiar moustached dwarf of Makarov, behind the two was a sunglassed man with long sandy blonde hair under a black pointed hat, both the hat and his neck had a red spiked collar on them

"Masters" Erza greeted respectfully with a nod

"Good work you four" Makarov praised them

"I see you captured Erigor, Gray how long do you think that will restrain him for?" Makarov asked

"I'm not sure, but at least an hour and besides with you hear now it hardly matters" the ice wizard responded

"Oohhh. So you're the one who captured the big bad Erigor, mmm handsome and strong…" The bald cross dresser exclaimed as he clamped himself around one of Gray's arms

"I. Uhh… Thanks?... Could you, uhh let go please." Gray stuttered, decidedly uncomfortable

"Let go of my child Bob, you're upsetting him" Makarov said sternly, causing the dolled up man to release him, he gave a grateful look to his master before hearing stifled laughter from his gold and platinum haired companions, Gray then turned to glare at them, only causing them to laugh harder

"Aww Makarov you're no fun…" Bob pouted at his fellow master before turning to direct a 'seductive' look at Gray

"Feel free to call me anytime handsome" he invited and Gray shuddered, Erza put a hand on his shoulder in consolidation, he saw in her eyes a gaze of understanding.

"Anyway master, I take it the rune knights are on their way?" Erza asked professionally

Makarov opened his mouth to answer but he was cut off by maniacal laughter courtesy of Erigor

"FOOLS! Not even the rune knights can save you now!" He yelled with a positively evil grin on his face

"What are you yelling about Erigor?" The collared man retorted in exasperation, only to Erigor to laugh all the harder

"Calm yourself Goldmine, I fear we will find out what our captive means sooner rather than later" Makarov reasoned ominously

As the trapped man simply continued to laugh a large dark purple magic circle appeared on the ground beneath him and began to expand, Lisanna gasped in surprise

"Everyone! Get away!" She screamed as she leapt away, the others following suit

"What's the problem child?" Makarov asked concerned by Lisanna's drastic action

"I recognised the magic wavelength, its demon transformation magic!" She explained and returned her full attention to the still cackling Erigor

"What!? That can't be right, Erigor isn't a takeover mage and your sister is the only instance of demon soul magic I've ever heard of!" Goldmine exclaimed beginning to sweat nervously, he had heard the tales of the oldest Strauss sister and a mage with the reputation of Erigor with magic like hers could be catastrophic

"No. It's not takeover magic, hell, it's not even Erigor's, I think he released the seal on the flute and now it's taking its original form" Lisanna theorised

As she completed the thought, her fears were proven right as the circle shone with a purple light and a gigantic creature quickly grew, forming an enormous wooden monster with twisted limbs and three glowing red eyes, it let out a screech to the heavens that temporarily deafened them all

"HAHAHA YES! LULLABY! HEAR MY COMMAND! DESTROY THESE FLIES THAT…" Erigor screamed in demented euphoria but was cut off by the five story demon slamming its fist down on top of him, bringing its head down to the level of the collected fairy tail mages and masters, the giant beast let out another scream, this one filled with dark energy that rocketed towards them at a frightening speed

"ICE MAKE: GLACIAL SHEILD!"

"ADAMANTINE ARMOUR!"

A large stained glass window looking ice sculpture appeared before the collected mages but only briefly held off the demon's attack, the black beam punched through and directly into Erza

The red head was now clad in a full dark blue and silver-white armour suit, with a menacing crown esque helmet and bulky shoulder guards, on each of her arms was a large black semi-oval of metal with more silver-white ridges and spines, they were both as tall as she herself was and as she put them together they resembled a large turtle shell

In her new garb Erza had no trouble holding off the beam and with barely a grunt of effort she reflected and redirected it off into the horizon where it levelled the hill she and the others had camped when they first arrived

Before she could make any form of command to her teammates they were already on the move, Lisanna had switched into her arctic fox takeover and was speeding towards the now risen demon, Lucy summoned Taurus in his battle form and Gray was in his stance; a solid, wide stance with one hand in a fist, placed in the palm of his other and was collecting magic

She smiled and quickly changed into an armour set she had that had been specifically created to counter Mira when she was in her prime: her saint's spirit armour and blessed blade, the armour was not dissimilar to her standard heart kreuz with the exception being it was made of white form fitting metal plates, inlaid with gold and various gemstones and the standard blue skirt and boots were replaced with full leg plating and a short red skirt that reached down to the upper-middle of her thighs, clasped over her left shoulder was a long red cape with gold embroidery with the symbols of both fairy tail and the church of zentopia printed apon it in black and white respectively. Her hair stayed down but seemed straighter and more disciplined, it was no longer in her face or over her shoulders, her head was left unarmoured but the golden collar of the chest piece did rise and curl in two long strips behind her head that formed a circle that her hair fell through.

Like its accompanying armour, the sword was anything but ordinary: it's blade was golden with a wide surface at its end that curved in slightly before widening out again as you went down the blade, two points pointed towards the silver guard, the design of which looked remarkably like the intricate horns of a demon, before the blade thinned down to a regular width as it connected with its guard and handle, the connecting point was accentuated with a large sapphire that seemed to swirl with magic energy. Erza clasped the leather handle itself with her gauntleted right hand and a magic mirage of a pair of white feathered wings appeared, originating at the sapphire in the guard, they spread and wrapped themselves around the entire of Erza's arm before fading away

While the mirage appeared and faded Lisanna had already reached the giant demon and with a mighty leap reached its eye level, before quickly changing herself into her heavy hitting polar bear soul and spinning in midair she delivered a ground shaking kick to the area between the beast's three eyes

"ICE MAKE: TRIPWIRES!"

The demon attempted to take a step back to rebalance itself from the kick that had, briefly, put cracks in its face only to find it couldn't move its legs further back due to a veritable web of ice cables that were easily as thick and strong as steel, and as the laws of gravity entail, lullaby fell. The colossal dust cloud kicked up by its unceremonious fall and the ensuing shockwave both blinded the present mages and temporarily knocked them off balance

"ICE MAKE: RESTRAINTS!"

As the dust began to settle the mages saw the beast slowly getting back to its feet and as a counter measure Gray, using a larger version of the restraints he used on Erigor, tied the demon's legs together and tethered them to the ground, once again causing the monster to topple into its back, before falling to his knees himself due to magic exhaustion.

"Taurus! Grab its arm and hold it in place!" Lucy commanded her spirit so it couldn't break the ice holding it down, rushing over to its right arm Taurus dispelled his axe and grabbed the monster's wrist and using all his strength held it in place, Lisanna caught on quickly and did the same to the wooden behemoth's other arm using the enhanced strength of both her polar bear soul and a minor dragon slaying technique she had been mastering. Seeing that the beast was restrained, at least for now, Erza literally jumped into action

"LIGHT OF ZENTOPIA!"

Erza leapt into the air high above the prone lullaby, time seems to slow as her golden blade glowed a holy white and she did a half flip so her body was perpendicular to the earth, straight as an arrow she appeared to be diving towards the earth in the instant her attack finished charging, with the blade above her head and her body now glowing the with the same white light as her sword, time restarted.

In a flash, all the energy she had amassed in her armour and weapon was released and she shot towards the prone monster's chest like a bullet, a great explosion of light and wood ensued, Taurus was dispelled by the intense shockwave and Lisanna was violently thrown back only to be caught by Makarov's giant palm, courtesy of his Titan magic.

As the sawdust began to settle all that was left of lullaby was its forearms and the top half of its head, the damaged ends of which were slowly going black and drifting away on the breeze, debris from the defeated demon continued to rain down on the fairy tail mages and the present masters. Seeing an opportunity, Lisanna, who was now back in her regular form quickly snatched a twig of the demon's carcass and pushed a little preserving magic into it, to stop it dissolving, then quickly hid it within the inner pockets of her dress. Only Makarov saw her do this and knew it was for her sister; Lisanna still held onto the hope that Mira would regain her takeover: demon soul magic and so collected artefacts with demon essence for her sister to use as base points for new takeovers should she want to (it also had a little to do with a dragon slayer's natural tendency to hoard things)

"Oh my! That was explosive" Bob exclaimed with an impressed air about him, they had all thought the giant monster would be harder to defeat but four of Makarov's brats had done it with seemingly very little problem. Well, both Gray and Lucy were magically exhausted and Lisanna's vision was blurry and her steps uneven due to shock.

From the direction of the conference hall an entire regiment of Rune Knights, all armed to the teeth, only to see nothing but two impressed guild masters, one indifferent one, two exhausted mages and two standing, albeit one a little shakily.

"What the hell happened here!" The commander of the regiment demanded from behind the visor of his helmet as he gestured with heavy armoured arms towards the crater Erza calmly stood in, now back in her typical heart kreuz armour

"Well you see…" Makarov started

"Flint" the commander imputed

"Well you see Flint, this convict…" Makarov began again, gesturing towards the battered Erigor who, despite being crushed under a demon was spasmodically twitching the one limb that wasn't hideously broken

"Released a demon in an attempt to kill myself and my fellow guild masters, but my four children here managed to defeat it before it could do any damage" the short man explained politely

"Huh, well that's good and all but the damages here are extensive so I'm going to need you three to act as witnesses and write a report on what happened here" Flint explained causing the three guild masters to groan and the extensive paper work they were going to be subjected to

"And you lot! Collect anyone with a dark guild mark and get them locked up, and lose the armour, it _apparently_ isn't necessary" Flint commanded before walking off to take off the frankly annoyingly heavy armour he had hastily put on after being told he would be fighting a _FUCKING DEMON!_

Lisanna laughed at the crest fallen faces of the guild masters before walking over to the passed out Lucy and discreetly giving her enough energy to wake up, at least enough to walk with assistance

"Ugh, what!?" The blonde complained at being woken up

"Come on, you can sleep when we get back to the hotel, Happy get Gray, we're going" Lisanna called to her blue companion

"Aye Ma'am!"

* * *

 **Not as many words this time. Ah well. Hopefully the next chapter won't be so far away (although I wouldn't count on it, sorry). Anywho, I recently got a beta and she told me to make the format like it is in this chapter (each person talking is a new line) I've got to say I kinda like it, so if you agree, tell me and I'll go back through the other chapters and make them the same (it would be a good excuse to fix any errors as well)**

 **Since I've basically realised I'm rubbish at romance I've changed the tags to the ever ambiguous action/adventure since the action is the thing I enjoy doing most about this fic and Colourscape just kinda died, I'll think of some way to finish it eventually, probably.**

 **As always tell me what you think and what I can do to improve, as well as ideas for new things, like takeovers, armours, spirits, honestly anything I don't care, if it's cool; I write it. But ideas for Virgo's new battle form would be appreciated since I only have a rough idea for her atm.**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

 **Mhm. Disclaimer. You can check how much of this stuff I own on chapter 1 or even 10**

* * *

"HEAT WAVE!"

Ignea's yells echoed throughout the open air training ground as his magic attack knocked over another wave of new members he was training with, causing a round of muffled laughter from those assembled to watch the spectacle of the most respected lieutenant in the military tear through their comrades, for sport, of course.

The groans of the men and women he had just knocked over caused the staff wielder to laugh. But rather than be offended, his opponents knew he was laughing at their reactions, not their inability to defeat, or even hit him. They shortly conceded his victory with weary smiles before returning to their mirthful companions.

"So who's next?" The white headed lieutenant called jovially with his arms spread invitingly

"I will be." A clear and cold voice called, the crowd split to allow the owner of the voice to step forward, Ignea's eyes narrowed slightly but his grin didn't waver

"Erza! That's great; perhaps today you could actually give me a challenge." The man taunted the ginger woman who, clad in her revealing, if surprisingly effective black armour, was approaching the simple battlefield with her magic spear: the Ten Commandments already in her hands and ready for battle, as it always was. The red head scoffed at Ignea's taunt

"I heard about your pitiful performance with Sabertooth, our holding cells are overflowing with them, and not only that but the jailers have specific orders not to let anyone from the second division in. What's with that Ignea? Don't want me to hurt your little friends?"

"Can it Knightwalker! as much as we all find your obsessive sadism endearing, they're all prisoners of war and human beings to boot, besides, they have information we want and the more of them we have, the easier it will be to get" Ignea rebutted as he readied his staff

With no pre warning, Erza shot forward, rapidly closing the distance between herself and her white clad opponent. Ignea swiftly redirected the thrust that would have pierced his chest with almost no difficulty despite the armoured padding it sported, _stupid magic weapons being able to cut through leather like air,_ Ignea thought as he silently dodged another thrust before swing his staff low in an attempt to trip Erza up

She predictably jumped over the low swipe and raised her spear horizontally above her head to block the following downward swing. Erza raised her right leg in an attempt to kick Ignea away with a shot to the chest but he had done the same and their shins collided with a resounding thud, Erza feeling nothing due to the black greaves covering her lower legs but left Ignea quietly smarting from the sharp contact

Ignea then rapidly thrust the end of the dragon's fang at Erza's torso multiple times, only for her to dodge and swerve, avoiding every hit. she spun her spear in a twirl, knocking the staff back then driving the blunt end into Ignea's stomach, causing the man to double over, only for his body to be hit straight again from an uppercut delivered by the same leg he had blocked earlier and then sent sprawling from a straight kick delivered by her other leg

"Come on Ignea, as much as I enjoy beating you black and blue it's not as fun if you don't fight back, stop dicking around and fight me seriously!" the red head taunted the man who was catching his breath as he lay on his back in the grass, letting out a huff he spin kicked his way up on to his feet and rushed her

The blows being exchanged were now much faster and skilled, no longer dumbed down for the small mass of people watching the bout. the two combatants gave and received almost equal amounts of damage thanks to the rare mistake and small holes in their technique, it was clear that Erza was better with her weapon than Ignea but he more than made up for it with his unpredictability, sometimes using his fists and feet as much as his weapon

Once, an expertly executed combo left Ignea without the dragon's fang and frantically dodging Erza's thrusts and swipes, she had smugly yelled at him to concede to which he had only laughed. In anger Erza over extend on a thrust and thus allowing for Ignea to penetrate her defences. he had looked her dead in the eye as his fist connected with her unarmoured stomach, knocking the air out of her, his leg had then swept her's out from under her, as she fell he had jumped and used her falling stomach as a spring board to backflip over to where his staff had fallen

After about an hour had passed, no victor was clear but both parties were panting in fatigue, the tiredness and relative inexperience caused Ignea to become careless and after an extremely close glancing shot and a punishing hit to the head, leaving him reeling as the world spun he held up his hand in a sign of surrender

"Ok ok, I give, I'm exhausted, I suppose you can have this one Knightwalker" the lieutenant jokingly surrendered as he promptly sat down to catch his breath. During the entire bout no magic attacks had been exchanged and Erza's spear hadn't changed from its original form, mostly due to the damage it could've caused to their audience and because the two of them preferred to test their raw strength against the other rather than their weapon's magical aptitude

"I suppose instead of killing you, you can help me and my division in the next raid we make on Fairy Tail" Erza seemed to decide after catching her breath

"What, why!?" Ignea exclaimed in surprise

"Is there a problem _lieutenant_?" Erza spat not exactly liking the fact that Ignea could still meet her blow for blow in a non-magical battle or the, if she was being frank, suspicious tone he had taken to pose that question

"No, of course not _commander_ , you just surprised me is all, our disdain for one another isn't exactly new news why would you want me to help you with one of your prided raids?" Erza glared at Ignea, who was in her eyes being incredibly disrespectful towards her

"It's not my idea" she huffed offhandedly as she turned to leave, beginning to grin as it dawned on Ignea

"By the way, Millianna wanted to see you" she said with a smug look

* * *

"Ho boy am I tired." Lucy complained to Mira and Cana across the bar

"Jeeze blondie, quit yer bitchin', we know, you're tired, only just got yer magic power back and it's bigger than ever, blah blah. Sure it's pretty impressive helping to take down a demon and all but I really stopped caring about how tired you are after the third time you said it" the tipsy brunette playfully reprimanded

"Cana! Be nice" Mira exclaimed in shock at Cana's attitude towards Fairy Tail's newest rising star

"Aaaand you! When was the last time you had any fun? Heh when was the last time you went on a daaaate?" the card mage asked suggestively over her tankard of sickly-sweet smelling liquid, causing the barmaid to blush and look away towards the second floor

"That doesn't matter Cana, I'm happy with my life, I'm helpful and that's enough" the ex-demon mage said wistfully and Cana wisely remainder silent, unwilling to peruse the topic further, at least while she was still mostly sober

"So Lucy, how's life now you've got a taste of Fairy Tail?" Cana asked the key mage who was carefully inspecting designs for the battle gear she was going to try and get for Virgo

"I love it! It's better than I could have ever imagined, everything is so lively and homely. I've only been her two weeks and my life had already got indefinitely more exciting" Lucy exclaimed

"Good to hear blondie, it even seems that Erza's taken a liking to you as well, I wouldn't be surprised if she invited you, Gray and Lisanna to join a team with her after how well you guys did." The card mage hypothesised and Mira nodded

"It would be good for her, she's always been a bit of a loner and after the Beast incident she's only really taken jobs on her own" the white haired barmaid analysed

"Speaking of Erza, do you know where she it? I need to talk to her." Lucy asked her new friends who she was already completely loyal to, there's no way she could go back to her life after these two weeks, _no matter what father wants,_ she thought

"Knowing her, she probably slept in, she'll be here soon" Mira consoled. Just as she said that one of the guild's doors was kicked open and the armoured figure of Erza confidently strode in

"Speak of a demon… and one shall appear." Cana quipped sarcastically

"Hey Erza!" Lucy called, waving her arm to get the red head's attention, the warrior in question seemed to be surprised someone was calling her over, she was popular and loved in fairy tail but it was rare she got close to anyone. She made her way to the three women at the bar and sat down

"Strawberry cake and a lemonade please Mira" she ordered before turning to Lucy

"Yes?" she asked, wondering why the blonde had called her over

"I uh… Was wondering if you could help me with something." Lucy explained, Erza scrutinised her for a moment before shrugging

"Sure what do you need?" she asked while she turned to the plate of cake Mira had placed in front of her with quiet thanks

"I'm looking for a place to get magic weapons and armour, preferably that I can get hand tailored and that isn't too expensive" Lucy explained getting straight to the point, Erza's eyes lit up at the mention of her passion and she immediately thought of the places she herself had gotten armour in the past

"For yourself? I thought you were a celestial spirit mage why would you need armour?"

"No, not for me, for Virgo, my new zodiac spirit. I need to get her some gear for a battle form" Lucy explained

"Battle form?" Erza asked, expressing the curiosity of both Mira and Cana as well

"Oh, well uhh, every spirit has at least one form; its basic one and umm, Y'know what, just let me show you" Lucy tried to explain before reaching for her keys

"Open! Gate of the little dog: Canis Minor; Nikora!"

When the silver light of Lucy's summon quickly faded, a small snowman looking creature was quietly shivering on the bar top. Erza's eyes quickly turned into stars as she was awestruck with the cuteness of the small spirit and only the urgent need to devour strawberry cake was keeping her from immediately grabbing the creature and hugging it

"This is Plue, say hi Plue"

"Plue!" the sprit barked excitedly, causing Mira to coo

"It's adorable Lucy. But why call it Plue? I thought spirits were named after the stars, shouldn't his name be Nikora, or Canis Minor?" Mira asked

"Oh, I called him Plue because that's what he says and there are tonnes of Canis Minor spirits, and their keys are fairly common. Plus he's just too cute to go around calling him Nikora! But I digress; this is Plue's normal form…" Lucy explained

"But he looks nothing like a little dog, why is he called the spirit of it?" Cana questioned

"I'm getting to that. Plue! Anima form!" as Lucy commanded the small spirit its body was enveloped in silver light and once it faded a small but vicious looking dog stood in its place.

"This is Plue's Anima form, most spirits have either this or an Arma form, it turns them into the animal they represent or a weapon/object for the spirit mage to use. In addition the golden spirits of the twelve zodiac have a third form on top their normal one and either Anima or Arma; their battle form." Lucy explained while Plue went over to Erza and jumped down, landing on her lap and growling contentedly as the requip mage began to pet him

"If my understanding is correct it kinda works a bit like if you mixed your magic, Erza and Lisanna's, their bodies can change even if I generally choose not to and they can equip a set of armour and weapons that enhance them magically, the stronger the set and the more bizarre the change, the greater the strain on me to keep them equipped on the spirits so they're better to be used as last resorts and trump cards." Lucy finished explaining

"And so you need my help to get your new spirit gear for her battle form" Erza deduced then nodded, downed the glass of lemonade and stood up causing Plue to quickly jump back up onto the bartop with a small annoyed bark

"Let's go, you can tell me what you have in mind while we walk" Erza commanded then began to stride off

"Thank you! Plue, you can return now" Lucy dismissed the small spirit who barked once more then disappeared in flash of silver. Lucy quickly matched Erza's fast pace and walked beside her as she explained what she needed. The red head listened attentively, occasionally inputting ideas and corrections as the pair made their way down Magnolia's high street

* * *

Lieutenant Millianna Knightwalker of the Royal army's second magic war division was a woman of average height and preppy composure, with a cute face and an easy going nature it was hard to believe she was in any way related to the sadistic monster that was the fairy hunter: Erza Knightwalker

That was until you got to know her; Millianna had a deep seated and intense hatred for all things feline, especially the exceed and it often got in the way of her judgement. The sob story she told everyone was that her and Erza's parents had been killed by the exceeds and then the teacher she and her older sister trained under to achieve revenge had met the same fate.

The story had done well in cultivating hatred among the populous towards the exceed, whether it was true or not was unknown but Natsu suspected it was a misunderstanding. You see, there was a legend in Edolas that the ruler of the Exceeds had the power to decide who lived and died, on their command a human would simply drop dead if they so wished.

This legend was in fact total bullshit but only a select few had even realised it, the story was a rumour spread around by the exceeds themselves about a generation ago to try and make the humans more complacent and easier to manipulate, the tactic had worked for a time but it had now turned into nationwide fear and hatred and a misplaced sense of pride and superiority in the winged felines and it was only a matter of time before war broke out.

Millianna's general choice of attire was much more conservative than her older sister's; she wore snug plate metal armour underneath a purple and black cloak that covered her entire torso. She generally used an excessively large double headed war axe made of a dark metal and stylised with the gaping maws of the black wolf; the historical enemy of the Exceed

While Erza was the figure head for torture and sadism in the army, Millianna was really no different, the two Knightwalkers were dangerous women and while one hated him with a fiery passion … the other did the exact opposite, the brown haired younger sister to the walking taking hate machine that was Erza Knightwalker was completely smitten with the mysterious albino lieutenant of the first division

And despite all his thick headedness and brief periods of pure idiocy, Ignea knew this well, he just pretended he didn't, to keep up appearances and to prevent awkwardness. He got along with Millianna well enough to call her a friend, at least when she wasn't discreetly doting on him or hurting something.

It couldn't really be said he was leading her on as he never really showed any interest in relationships beyond professional, much to Millianna's chagrin and Erza's endless amusement; but the Knightwalkers were nothing if not stubborn. Besides she was a valuable ally if and when he could be bothered to muster the brain power to manipulate her, or when Pantherlily came up with an idea that needed the second division's at least partial participation.

"Erza said you wanted to see me?" Ignea said bluntly having found Millianna in her quarters she and Erza shared by following his nose

"Ignea! It's so good to see you! Did big-sis give you the good news! I convinced her to let you come with me next time we attack fairy tail! Isn't that great!?" Millianna exclaimed quickly and excitedly, silently praying for her apparently clueless love interest's approval

"Uh yea… Great, I can't wait" he responded with trepidation. No one ever quite got used to Millianna's super happy attitude and her quick fire exclamations were quite confusing at times

"I know right! It's going to be great! I almost can't wait!" She squealed almost before he finished taking

"Mhm" Ignea inputted noncommittally, secretly not looking forward to it in the slightest

"Anyway, Erza said you wanted to talk to me? Is there something you need from the first division?" He asked, genuinely clueless. Millianna giggled at his confusion before becoming rather bashful

"A-actually Ignea, I-I wanted to ask you something" she quietly asked, almost too quietly to be heard, but you know how it is, dragon hearing and all that.

"Uhh sure…" Ignea ventured.

"ACTUALLY! Nevermind! It doesn't matter, that is all lieutenant, I uhh just wanted to see what you… Uhh… Thought about the upcoming raid! You can go!" She rushed out with a red face and frantic arm movements.

"Ok then, I'll see you then lieutenant." Ignea quickly saluted and made his way off, lest she muster up the courage to actually go through with asking him out, now that would be awkward, for everyone, and the last thing he needed was Erza hating more than she already did.

 _Phew, she didn't go through with it, that's the last thing I want to deal with right now_

 _I chickened out. Again! Ugh curse it all, next time! Next time for sure!_

* * *

They had visited almost a dozen shops and blacksmiths in Magnolia, its close towns and villages by the time the sun began to set. They finally deciding on a local smith shop founded by graduated apprentices of Heart Kreuz

The blacksmiths had recognised Erza and had been extremely helpful and respectful; they had swiftly and accurately taken Virgo's measurements before beginning to work. They claimed the commission would take about a month and it would be delivered to the guild hall when they were done, Erza had accepted, haggled the price down and paid the deposit despite Lucy's protests.

"Why did you pay for the set? It's for my spirit, you should have let me." Lucy complained as the two exited the shop

"Lucy. I did it because you've only been on two missions, neither of which you were paid for, so on top your rent, which Mira has told me you still need to pay, even if you could afford to pay them, it would set you back. Besides now you're part of Fairy Tail, we're all your brothers and sisters, doesn't that make you my sister as well? Can't I buy something nice for my sister every once in a while?" Erza asked and turned to smile kindly at Lucy whose steps faltered

"Oh" Lucy breathed out in surprise as her face broke into a bright smile and tears pricked at her eyes, she wiped them away before they could fall and she jogged slightly to catch back up with Erza

The blonde's smile persisted and Erza concluded that she had fun during this shopping trip with the bubbly celestial spirit mage and would decidedly not mind doing something like it again. As the two approached the guild in companionable silence they heard shouting from inside, as Lucy opened the hall doors the words became clearer

"Come on Gramps! You've gotta let me go!" Gray exclaimed to the impassive Makarov

"I said no, this mission is well above your class" Makarov stated

"I'm fine to go with him Gramps" Lisanna said plainly

"So are we" a woman with long lime green hair under a western stetson hat said as she sat opposite a man with long black hair covering one of his eyes

"Gray seems pretty desperate to go, between the four of us it should be fine shouldn't it master?" the man said

"Hmm I suppose, but I would still feel better if you had a S class member with you" the short moustached man conceded

"What's going on over here" Erza demanded

"Erza! You've got to help me with this! Ur sent in a S class request, I've got to help her!" Gray hastily explained to the surprised red head

"Ur? Your teacher?" Erza asked beginning to understand why Gray was so worked up, he hadn't seen the woman who had basically raised him for coming up on a decade, he was understandably desperate to go and help her with anything she needed. This was also the reason that Lisanna and the gunslingers had so readily agreed to join him

"Let me see the mission." the requip mage requested and Makarov handed her a sheet of paper. While Erza read it over the guild was silent, wondering how this situation was going to play out

"Master, if I formed a team consisting of myself, Lisanna, Lucy and Gray and the Gunslingers accompanied us, would that be sufficient for this request?" Erza asked directly

"More than enough. Mira, send a message back to Ur, fairy tail is sending a team of six mages including one S class." Makarov said before turning back to the bar and lifting his tankard, thus signalling the end of the discussion. Erza immediately took charge

"We leave first thing the day after tomorrow, is that fine with everybody?" Erza asked getting a nod out of Lisanna and verbal confirmations from the gun mages, Gray frowned at the delay but knew that the international trains didn't run on Sundays anyway so conceded with slight reluctance

"Uhh Erza, I don't mean to question you choice making or be self-deprecating but am I really qualified for an S class mission, is me coming along such a good idea?" Lucy asked apprehensively

"Probably not." Erza put bluntly causing Lucy to deadpan

"But we like you, we could very well form the team without you it" Lisanna explained having readily agreed with Erza's choice of teammates, Gray just nodded in agreement. For the second time in less than an hour Lucy's face was all smiles

"I won't let you down!" She said with conviction

* * *

 **No news other than my Beta being a bit dumb. In case you didn't get the memo I'm replacing Galuna Island with something else. I've got it all sorted out but ideas and constructive criticism are, as always, welcome.**

 **Only two reviews last chapter. What's with that? Even though the graph thingies tell me more of you viewed the last chapter than any of my others. Oh well it's not really a big deal. In good news: the two I got pushed me past the story this one took a lot of its inspiration from, that's right folks: Snow storm has more Reviews than Lisanna of the snow (go read it).**

 **Soon I'll change the cover pic as well, my Beta draws, isn't she useful? When she does her job properly that is**


End file.
